You need to re-read my post. I said no such thing. If you do the research, the regulatory prophylactic does not work as well as you think, at least in the U.S. Our food in the U.S. is not healthy. Making an argument that we have safe food regulated by the FDA takes a very short sighted, superficial look at the situation. In the long term, our food will kill you because it's very unhealthy - from GMO's, to myriads of artifical stuff added in, to hormones and steroids given to the animals from which we get our meat. All FDA approved, mind you. None of this should come as a surprise, since we have a democracy where corporations and companies can buy whatever favor and/or advantage they want from the government. How do you expect government oversight to work with our revolving door politics? If you use your critical reading to understand what I'm saying, you'll notice I don't argue for market regulation; I just argue against the regulatory devices we have set up. Our situation doesn't offer much more confidence, so there's no need for it really. Americans are much better off empowering themselves to ensure their safety instead of acting like a herd of sheep. Buck up and grow your own food, or pay a little more for locally grown organic food at the health food store. Stop shopping at Wal-Mart and other giant grocery stores, and you'll have no need for the FDA at all.
of course, I lived through it. Reagan unleashed the US economy, and the soviets bankrupted themselves trying to keep up.
Sadly, youre completely mistaken, again... [video=youtube;5MDFX-dNtsM]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5MDFX-dNtsM[/video] [video=youtube;s7Pkk2DXhFw]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7Pkk2DXhFw[/video]
You have a terrible habbit of spamming YouTube videos and thinking they support you. Reagan had almost nothing to do with the fall of the soviet Union. 40+ years of waging a Cold War with them did.
If you want to hijack the thread over some Reagan v. the USSR bull (*)(*)(*)(*), I'll guess I'll weigh in. The Soviet Union collapsed because socialism sucks, not because of Reagan. I guess he made a decent President, but you don't have to go around giving him some ridiculous praise. You lose your credibility and come off as a partisan hack. You aren't one of those are you?
Can you provide any examples of actual monopolies that weren't a result of government interference in the market? The only monopolies I'm aware of are government itself and those created by government intervention, such as local services like gas, electric and water services.
Then you have bent and accepted the yoke. The Patriot Act was quite possibly the worst attack on the U.S Constitution and most people accepted it without a thought. The 9/11 attack was not an assault on our people but rather on our way of life. The Patriot Act was the surrender flag. The terrorists won. Period. There is a cost for living in a free society. I am NOT willing to keep giving away liberties because of what might happen. I will deal with the consequences.
Free market is absolutely the best system. But oh, a "common sense" free market. It's quite dilly to compare an extreme - absolutely laissez Faire free market - to making what we'd call "the right" regulations. But yes, if you *understand* the principles of free market capitalism, certain regulations will make for a better market. For example, opponents of the XL Pipeline have railed that it's bad for the environment, it can spill, yadayadayada. Why not just require companies to pay for clean up costs - likely through insurance? That way the companies DO take responsibility for the environmental damage, and it's up to them to find the best route to deal with it. Far better than saying "you can't build a pipeline "
Why should collusion be illegal in a free market? The products being sold are the property of the sellers. They have the right to sell them at any price they wish. They have the right of free speech and can communicate with each other. Why in a free market should they not be allowed to collude? And yes, there certainly are people who want to repeal the 14th Amendment. It does 3 things Cons hate: 1. Birthright citizenship preventing them from deporting "anchor babies". 2. Equal protection under the law preventing them from discriminating against gays. 3. Extends the Bill of Rights restrictions on government to the states, preventing the states from violating religious freedoms of non-Christians.
Because Cons would oppose it. Remember back when the Deep Water Horizon spill happened and Conservatives were outraged at the suggestion that BP be forced to pay for cleanup?
Simple answer - because it wouldn't be a "free market" if collusion was legal. But you could call it something else, capitalism maybe.
The problem with what everybody is crying about is because Capitalism requires more than simply a FREE market... it requires a FREE and FAIR market. Collusion would be fine with a free market but it then makes the market unfair. As much pure capitalism as possible is the ONLY viable long-term economic option.
It is the job of the government to protect individual rights. What individual right is violated and therefore needs protecting if two individual property owners decide to agree on what they would sell their property for?
We certainly wouldn't want anything to be free market. Such as...oh..the dialogue in here. We should be regulated, controlled over what we can say. Disuaded from making critical statements, keep our opinions to ourselves. Freedom never works.
He was just sad because I was pretty busy yesterday and didn't pay as much attention as usual. He thought the title would catch my eye. Isnt that precious?