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Old 09-03-2012, 11:03 PM
 
Location: Littleton, CO
3,158 posts, read 6,099,041 times
Reputation: 5619

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After reading many different posts in several different forums, I am struck by the number of people that think that getting the government totally out of the way of businesses would make the country and the world a better place. While I agree there are reforms that could be made to make government run more efficiently, getting rid of government involvement altogether would be disastrous because:

1. The government puts into place standards for safety of employees and consumers. Without these protections, employees could be put into dangerous situations and then fired if they get hurt. Consumers would not be protected against tainted food, faulty products, transportation crashes, etc.

2. Government subsidizes several important industries including airlines, farming, and professional sports. Government builds airports and provides the industry with air traffic controllers. If this were left to the private sector, airline tickets would be unaffordable, the industry would crash and take the tourism industry with it. Farmers get water subsidies, crop insurance, and more. Pro sports would have to build their own arenas and stadiums. These are just a few industries that rely on the government to stay in business.

3. The government builds and maintains the infrastructure that makes trade possible. Without the government building and maintaining roads, railroads, and ports, goods could never make it to us for the prices we pay. Plus governments provide the protection and safety for business owners.

4. The government uses its money to hire the private sector in many different areas including: the space industry, weapons, infrastructure building, etc.

Can someone explain to me how getting rid of government involvement would make the economy better, the public safer, and the workers better off? Or would we just return to the days of the 1800s?
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Old 09-03-2012, 11:53 PM
 
Location: Pluto's Home Town
9,982 posts, read 13,718,356 times
Reputation: 5689
Well, the only reason most posters want to do it is because they are on constant diet of right wing radio and TV. They have no idea how to govern or to run an economy, but still they shout at the people they are supposed to shout at. Kind of sad that people can be so easily manipulated.

We have a mixed economy, and we'll have a mixed economy 100 years from now. All this ranting about the government and deficits is just phony outrage to fire people up and get the GOP back in power. Once they are back in power, like gay marriage, the issue will disappear.
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Old 09-04-2012, 12:21 AM
 
Location: England
3,261 posts, read 3,693,801 times
Reputation: 3256
Look what happened when US banks were de-regulated, they almost destroyed the United States economy, and also infected many of the worlds banks as well.
I don't understand how people like Beck,Hannity,Limbaugh,Palin,Bachmann & Coulter have become the intellectual hub of the Republican party. It's truly disturbing.
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Old 09-04-2012, 12:28 AM
 
30,873 posts, read 36,808,045 times
Reputation: 34452
Some day maybe people will start learning that neither the government nor Big Business are our protectors. All we do is go back and forth about which faction of the elite we want to be ruled by. It's increasingly 2 different masks on the same face. Is there really a difference between Communism and Fascism? It's dictatorship all the same, and that has been the direction we have been moving in for the last 100 years (at least).
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Old 09-04-2012, 12:31 AM
 
5,190 posts, read 4,825,928 times
Reputation: 1115
some people want to do away with govt. because they harken back to the days of feudalism, and for some reason they believe that they are entitled to be lords of the manor. (just because they have money now)
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Old 09-04-2012, 01:51 AM
 
Location: Texas
14,076 posts, read 20,475,078 times
Reputation: 7807
Quote:
Originally Posted by davidv View Post

Can someone explain to me how getting rid of government involvement would make the economy better, the public safer, and the workers better off?
You're making the common mistake of transference. Those objectives seem right to you, so you assume they're right for everyone else too, but they're not.

The goal of those who propose "getting government out" of the economy isn't those things. The goal is so they can keep more of what they have and screw public safety and the worker bees. In other words, greed.




Quote:
Or would we just return to the days of the 1800s?
That's exactly where it would take us. Of course, they're not bright enough to understand that it was the excesses of the Guilded Age which led to government regulations and unions in the first place! If they ever succeed in taking us back to those dreadful years, all they'll accomplish to lay the ground work for re-fighting the labor and regulation wars all over again! And, they'll loose the second time too!

It's just astonishing how little history most people know.
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Old 09-04-2012, 02:37 AM
 
5,190 posts, read 4,825,928 times
Reputation: 1115
you summed it up there with the word 'greed'.

that's what it's all about - well, greed and entitlement.

This is why we need a new form of Marxism for the 21st century.
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Old 09-04-2012, 03:00 AM
 
4,278 posts, read 5,162,488 times
Reputation: 2375
Quote:
Originally Posted by davidv View Post
After reading many different posts in several different forums, I am struck by the number of people that think that getting the government totally out of the way of businesses would make the country and the world a better place. While I agree there are reforms that could be made to make government run more efficiently, getting rid of government involvement altogether would be disastrous because:

1. The government puts into place standards for safety of employees and consumers. Without these protections, employees could be put into dangerous situations and then fired if they get hurt. Consumers would not be protected against tainted food, faulty products, transportation crashes, etc.

2. Government subsidizes several important industries including airlines, farming, and professional sports. Government builds airports and provides the industry with air traffic controllers. If this were left to the private sector, airline tickets would be unaffordable, the industry would crash and take the tourism industry with it. Farmers get water subsidies, crop insurance, and more. Pro sports would have to build their own arenas and stadiums. These are just a few industries that rely on the government to stay in business.

3. The government builds and maintains the infrastructure that makes trade possible. Without the government building and maintaining roads, railroads, and ports, goods could never make it to us for the prices we pay. Plus governments provide the protection and safety for business owners.

4. The government uses its money to hire the private sector in many different areas including: the space industry, weapons, infrastructure building, etc.

Can someone explain to me how getting rid of government involvement would make the economy better, the public safer, and the workers better off? Or would we just return to the days of the 1800s?

- Why can't government officials admit failure and get rid of what does not work? What do we need the Dept. of Labor for? If they go away who is harmed? Depts. of Education and Energy are both failures, yet, they keep receiving funds.

Private industry changes or it dies. IBM had a reputation for "no layoffs" for 60 some years, but then times changed and they had layoffs, massive ones. Do we see any massive layoffs in government? IBM reorganized itself many times during the last 30 years due to changing times, markets etc...has government done the same? Why not?
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Old 09-04-2012, 05:23 AM
 
45,069 posts, read 26,223,210 times
Reputation: 24812
For government, failure is success.
It runs monopolies devoid of competition,sustained by coercion and wherever it fails rewards itself with more money, more red tape, more bureaucrats, more mediocrity,more, more, more...

Capitalism left on its own punishes failures with loss of earnings which often lead to improvements by ownership or failure if not.
Profit is a motivator for meeting the needs of customers, not a dirty word.
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Old 09-04-2012, 05:47 AM
 
79,907 posts, read 43,959,063 times
Reputation: 17189
One thing that everyone knows about the internet is just because you claim something, it doesn't make it so. There are very few that want to completely get rid of the government. Most have no problem with it dealing with things like fraud.

Many of the things the government is doing today those who support big government historically did not support. Such as the current transference of taxpayer money to Wall Street and corporations.

Do I think that is a bad thing? Absolutely. Do I question why we need rules, laws and regulations when the government isn't going to enforce them anyway? Yes. Why have laws making something a crime punishable by prison but still allow people to do it and rather than prosecute them, you further enrich them with government actions?

So while most are for certain regulations, those like myself wonder why bother if they are to be ignored.
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