Yellow Dog [Part 22]

Donn,

HAHAHAHAHA... Your answer to reduce corporate influence on our politicians is to allow corporations to do what they want?? MORE Laissez Faire Capitalism?? And you think, somehow, they'll stop giving money to the policy makers and the holders of the USA's purse strings all on their own? Sorry, that’s SO contradictory I actually had to laugh out loud on that one.

Marx


Marx,

You laugh....And Nero fiddled while Rome burned. The economic crisis we are in today was created by your over-regulated economy...politicians in bed with corporations. Your cynicism prevents you from seeing the solution. The solution is liberty and rational, healthy self-interest. I’m suggesting we take away the purse...give the politicians an allowance to be used to fund the proper functions of government, period.

Donn


Donn,
I laugh because setting them free will ONLY do what it did in the era of robber barons, regardless of your bias, it was H E L L to be someone who wasn’t one of the top 1%. You let those guys do what they want and they won’t STOP what it was that has been so profitable for them, they'll do it more. Geez man, use your common sense

Marx


Marx,

By marrying them off to the politicians you have only made them more powerful... invincible! for christsake. Now, they can get a politician to CLUB the goddamned competition to death. Now, they no longer have to produce a better product, cheaper...all they need is a politician in Washington to back them up and they can serve up anything they want and you have to eat it...Eat it big time when their party is over. When their party's over these POLITICAL ENTREPRENUERS get their politician buddies to use the club again and bail them OUT!!! Who's lacking common sense?? You trust the goddamned politicians [who produce nothing and live extremely well, most in the top 1%] and damn the honest capitalist who just wants to sell his product to people who willingly choose to trade with him.

Donn

Donn,

The same "honest entrepreneurs" that turned the Cuyahoga river into a cesspool so horrific that it used to catch fire? Or the ones that sold cigarettes to the public while hiding damning scientific data so that people like my mother would be suffering from emphysema in her 70s? Maybe you mean the ones that produced the Corvair, designed so poorly that all it took was a bump from behind and it would turn into a blazing fireball but, the company felt that the amount of claims filed against it that would be successful was actually LESS costly then fixing the problem?? Wanna talk about the "love canal"?? Maybe what the pig farms are doing to South Carolina?? I could go on and on. The truth is, you dont regulate, they'll simply do a cost analysis before they EVER do anything and then, ONLY then, if cost of DOING something actually outweighs the costs of NOT doing anything. Its not ME that wants corporations to be married to politicians, its YOU. Geez man, use your common sense, why, in gods name would they EVER stop greasing politicians’ hands UNLESS there are LAWS forbidding it? I SUPPORT CAMPAIGN REFORM!!!!

Marx


Marx,

Reform? Give me a break. There are tons of laws on the books forbidding businessmen to grease politicians. You think the politicians are going to willingly give up the goose? No way. They reform campaign finance and people discover line 527...nothing changes. In fact it's worse [by your standards]. The soft-money is now given to unregulated private entities who can say and do whatever they want free from Congressional or FEC oversight.

Unless the divorce is final and the change systemic, i.e. a complete separation of government and the economy, the politicians and their business buddies will continue to sleep together, screwing all of us.

The examples you site are examples of political entrepreneurs, once again. Capitalism hasn't existed in this country for over a century. You'll have to find examples from the 19th Century if you want to prove your point to me. Every example you site happened WHILE the businessman and the politician were married...the source of the corruption. If you own the police, you can commit a lot of crimes and not have to worry about just consequences.

Besides, I said rational self-interest. In a free market the bad players are weeded out. They don't stay in business long. The damage they create is mitigated by the competition. In essence business IS REGULATED...It's regulated by the PRIVATE SECTOR: 1. your competition will let the public know you're a dirt-bag; 2. consumer watchdog groups will provide venues for people who were harmed by your activities; 3. the courts will still exist...class action lawsuits would still happen to weed out fraud and abuse. I'm not talking about lawlessness, MARX!

Did you know you can buy industry-certified lumber? I don't remember the name of the private entity that conducts the oversight, but Jared Diamond explains what they do in his book Collapse. The certification ensures consumers that the lumber they are buying was produced by a company that practices "silviculture," the planting of trees [like crops] to replace this renewable resource as it is consumed. Another great example of how the private sector weeds out bad players by educating consumers [rather than government FORCE] is the tuna industry. I don't care how much more it costs. I only buy dolphin-safe tuna.

The only reason the tobacco industry was able to lie and cheat and survive was because the industry was PROTECTED by Washington! You must know this! Few industries had as much clout on Capital Hill than the tobacco industry. Another reason they survive is because of people like me: We know about the dangers. We know it's not good for us. We do it anyway. [Sorry to hear about your mother.] Another industry in bed with the politicians is the auto industry...Have you ever seen the movie Tucker: the man and his dream? A great true story that makes my point well. Government is the only entity in existence that can sustain and enrich bad players. ONLY government has the CLUB to force competition out of the market place!

As long as government has the power to determine who gets to compete, there is no capitalism in this country. If you're not happy about the way the economy works these past 100 years or so, government intervention is the poison you rail against [even as you ask for more poison].

Donn