The only people who constantly bring up bs about Bush are Bush haters and Bush haters are fools. We need to get rid of as much government as fast as possible. John
Well John, that certainly was an intelligent response. Thanks for contributing your facts to this very healthy debate.
Wrong, Study history, capitalism was not invented by an academic definition (unlike socialism) but by mercantilism in 1500-1700s Europe. Raw capitalism creates monopolies and oligopolies, just like it happened in Europe, then USA and now Russia. Names like Rockefellers, Carnegies & Vanderbuilts come to mind.
Right. Which reflects my assertion of capitalism requiring regulation and oversite. The foundation of the constitution is: checks and balances. God, I love that word... balance.
Not at all, prevention means prevention of the disease hence loss of continuos treatments stemming from symptoms. True prevention would affect our diet which drags the big food industry into it. It would require them to operate on smaller margins and produce real food instead of the genetic chemical crap they make now. It's all about the money. It's insignificant in comparison to big pharma & healthcare. Plus most of those products are crap and just more greedy operators running scams and selling garbage. True prevention would mostly contain itself to proper nutrition & real health advice. I pay no more than 500 bucks a year for any supplements I take, the rest of my cost goes into higher quality food and fresh juices. This is not even close to the average american's health costs of insurance, operations and contionuos treatments of symptoms.
There has never been a truly capitalist society, so you can't say that it creates monopolies & oligopolies. Those are usually the result of government involvment, such as laws that restrict competition and "protect" industries.
How could big pharma & healthcare possible prevent disease? If individuals don't take responsibility for their own health there is nothing anyone can do to prevent them from getting sick. I agree that a lot of nutritional supplements are useless. I used to take quite a bit and now I just eat healthier , more natural foods. But the industry is filling a demand for people who think a pill can make them healthy so they don't have to worry about what they eat and getting proper exercise.
Hi fs, Are you against checks and balances. Do feel that the free market always balances itself and is not accommodable to abuse?
Yes, That's essentially what the Mises article suggests as well with respect to the "red" states. It's basically an employment program/special interest payoff for areas of the country where there is chronic underemployment and lack of opportunity. Makes me think of that expensive Alaska bridge to nowhere in the last budget. I think it was George Carlin who used to do a routine about starvation in Africa. He would say what a terrible thing it was and how nice that we send food. But then he would suggest that it didn't take a lot of brains to know that if you live in a desert you are going to have these problems. So move idiots! Ultimately, wasn't that the upshot of the dust bowl back in the '30s? Giving some credit to the other side for moment, the tax cuts and heavy defense spending by the federal government are probably the reason the country didn't go into the tank in the failure of the .com boom. Of course, the long term financial consequences of those policies are another matter! The ability to regulate monetary and fiscal policy -- done prudently and not for a political agenda -- is also a prudent use of federal funds on behalf of the states. Now I for one would certainly argue about what the money was spent on as well as the size of the expenditures. But that brings us back to lobbying and pandering politicians.