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Give a man a fish he will eat for a day. Teach a man to fish he will feed his family for a lifetime.
Until corporations wipe out the fish.... As usual, the answer is somewhere in the middle. Some things should be privatized, others shouldn't. It's been happening for some time. DMV good, prisons bad.
I try to stay out of political discussions for the most part. But ocasionally I find myself getting caught up in some political debates. And my first go to solution is to privatize. This immediately ends the conversation, or I get called all sorts of idiots.
I find it odd that Americas will agree social security is a disaster, the police force is a disaster, all of our social programs are a disaster. Yet when someone talks about the power of the market, people are automatically scared.
So I ask, why is America so afraid to attempt privatization? Why do we keep looking towards government for solutions? And why do we keep trying the same "solutions" over and over again that has netted very few gains or progress?
Not me. Everything possible should be privatized. That's how it was when this country was formed. There is very little, if anything, that government can do better than the private sector.
I disagree with your initial principles on the differences of government and business.
Quote:
Originally Posted by TheDusty
This is actually a really interesting question, and given that the leading candidates for President from the Republican party is a businessman and not a statesman, very relevant.
I think to begin, we'd have to ask what the difference between government and business is. I'll keep it short. Business is for profit, government is not. The principles of how they work and why they exist are very different with minimal, if any, overlap.
They're actually not. a For Profit business tries to maintain an annual income greater than expenditure, a non-profit tries to maintain an annual income equal to their expenditure. In both cases they can leverage outside income, savings and/or investments to cover costs.
Quote:
Originally Posted by TheDusty
I think it's also important to define the role of government. There would be some arguing, so to keep it simple, government has two basic jobs: (1) provide security to it's people and (2) create and uphold laws. This could be summarized as maintaining society (which is distinct from culture).
A business has the same principles it needs to provide security to its people and create and uphold it's "laws", and maintains it's own society and culture. Indeed the most profitable companies are also the companies with very distinct and beneficial internal societies and cultures, companies with little in the way of this are in general less profitable. I know it sounds trite by a happy workforce is a productive workforce.
Security is interesting some of this can be delegated to "government" some of it cannot. If you've every worked in a country with serious social upheaval (like say the Balkans during the 90's, parts of India, parts of Africa) then the company will provide very overt security, especially to key people it considers crucial to it's success (if you haven't experienced this in similar areas, do not ask for a pay raise). Even within the US I've never worked for any company that does not have corporate security, the bigger companies even had investigation units that worked solely within the company, but may liaise with local law enforcement where crimes had been committed internal to the company. Everyone is well aware that online activities at corporations are monitored, and if you're not aware of this, then you're not paying attention. On top of this there is provision of health insurance, in the US it's a mandate, but I've worked in the UK for companies that provided private health insurance, it's considered a benefit, but it's still "security", as are corporate pension plans, 401k plans, matching contribution plans, etc.
I actually think the issue isn't that government and business is different, I think the issue is that people want to see a difference, and to a large degree I do think that many issues with government are caused by an attempt to make that distinction where if we could just get over that want for their to be a difference government would be more efficient. It also has an impact on business, because they're painted as evil necessities intending to fleece their employees and some do, but do they act this way because the publics opinion is that they will, or do they act this way because they will act that way regardless of public opinion. It's hard for people to behave within the boundaries of society when society believes they are fundamentally flawed, and are alert for every minor transgression, companies are no different.
Gov't is not inefficient. They just put equality to access over profit.
Of course government is inefficient. Stop already.
And when did this equality to access thing start? 1776? 1863? 1890? 1954? 1964? or when Affirmative Action started?
The fed is about kick backs and special interests. Add to this bureaucracy and you have massive over spending.
Private sector is all about manipulating the above. The result is massive over billing.
I'm for privatizing everything. You either fund things on a voluntary, mutual basis where both parties consent...or you fund it by forcefully taking from everybody whether they consent or not.
That's the moral side of it, but it makes more practical sense as well. Anytime you have a monopoly like the state controlling a service, prices go up and quality goes down. At the very least, innovation is stifled and slowed.
A lot of private service providers are forced to raise prices due to the regulations and conditions being imposed on them, and costs go way above what they would normally be. Then you'll have people blame it on privatization or the free market..
Hell, nailed it word for word.
How's it going T0103E?
Notice your points are ignored as usual. No progress in the threads I comment in either.
They're all still in social contract mode. Can't understand the existence of an involuntary 3rd party (state) will always pervert the free market.
They're all still in social contract mode. Can't understand the existence of an involuntary 3rd party (state) will always pervert the free market.
As if there's a guarantee that an "unperverted" free market will lead to good outcomes.
I'd much rather deal with the local biker gang and their relaxed attitude to loud motorcycles, petty theft and violence through an involuntary 3rd party. And their consent to be judged by the law is not really a matter of great concern to me.
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