Re: [OT] Hostage to Hezbollah -- Lesson for Nasrallah: "The violence done to Lebanon shall overwhelm you."

On 29 Jul 2006 18:46:50 GMT, D Murphy <spamto154@xxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:

F. George McDuffee <gmcduffee@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in
news:co8nc2pplbj86mkhrarh1euvfdpbchfo01@xxxxxxx:

On Sat, 29 Jul 2006 06:09:44 GMT, "John R. Carroll"
<jcarroll@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Tom Gardner wrote:
Trust me, I don't think for a second that the current admin. or the
last one gave a *** about my fly-speck business, but the tax breaks
made a noticable improvement in easing my problems with suppliers
and customers. So, why should I think different? I, like most,
vote my pocketbook.

Fine Tom but don't spout off about how much value you put on building
anything real for future generations.
You'd be a hypocrite.
========================
Be careful you are not falling for one of the oldest cons around.
"Crack" and "Crank" also give momentary "highs," but incur
significant long-term costs.

Running a modern country is very expensive, and the costs of
government must be covered in some way, some how and at some
time.

Nonsense. It's become expensive because we've allowed it to spiral out
of control. We ran along just fine for better than 150 years spending
less than 5% of GDP on government. Now it's over 40%. The irony is that
big governement does nothing well.

9/11 is a perfect example of how government grows by leaps and bounds
while providing nothing of value.

First off you have to realize 9/11 wasn't possible due to the private
security companies at the airports. Those security companies enforced
every rule. It was perfectly leagal to carry those knives on board at
that point in time. The hijackers had all the I.D. that they were
required to have at that time. They were allowed on the planes because
they were breaking no rules.

Our government failed to screen these people out. They failed to
investigate this group of young Arab males rnning around trying to learn
how to fly a commercial airliner. They failed to uncover the plot.

Yet we allow our elected officials to herd us along like sheep. They
teel us that they can fix the problems by firing the private companies
and spending billions of dollars more of our money.

So what did we get for our money? Not much. We now have overpaid
government employees molesting old ladies in wheelchairs at the
airports. That is when they are not to busy pawing through everyone's
stuff and helping themselves to whatever is in the luggage.

Oh yeah, we also have a very expensive war that just keeps getting more
expensive every day. Only an utter fool would think that this war is
benefitting the U.S. at this point. Where did the justification for the
war come from? Faulty intellegence. Who provided that poor service? Why
the government of course.

The private sector out performs the government in every measure. Yet
when there is some problem, issue, or crisis, real or imagined we run to
the government to get it fixed. They spring into action, spend
bucketfulls of money and more often than not, make matters worse.


We rightly regard people that attain/maintain a lifestyle of "the
rich and the indicted" by continually increasing their
high-interest credit card balances, while making minimum
payments, as idiots, yet this is exactly what all of us are
doing, vis-à-vis our taxes. The question is "where can we send
Uncle Sam for rehab?"

To the private sector. Everything from highway construction to air
traffic control to the postal service should be put out for bid.


Other considerations are the deterioration of public services
such as police and fire/emt response times, the closure of
hospital emergency rooms, the courts/legal-system, and the
worsening conditions of infrastructure such as roads, bridges,
and tunnels. One of the most frequent corporate cost cutting
moves is to reduce or eliminate "preventative maintenance." It
is also one of the most costly in the long in that it costs far
more to repair or replace the damaged equipment. Management
announcement of a "deferred maintenance program" to cut costs,
[that is not doing required maintenance] should be a red flag to
all investors as it is almost always the start of a "death
spiral." There is no reason to assume that "public facilities"
are somehow different.

Public sevices have gotten much better in states and cities that use the
private sector to provide them. Oh and by the way, they save money. Lots
of it.


By all means vote your pocketbook, but make sure the money you
are receiving "up front" does isn't coming from the theft of your
TV set at home or your hubcaps, while you are at work.


We are being outvoted by people with bigger pocketbooks. Farmers don't
need subsidies. We don't need fedral flood insurance. We don't need
corporate welfare. We don't need most of the regulations that are
stifling our ability to compete.

We just need to let the free market decide who survives and who doesn't.
=====================
A long and thoughtful response, however...

The foundational problem with your analysis is that you deal with
"what ought" rather than "what is," and apparently make a number
of important tacit assumptions especially static socio-economic
conditions and the honesty levels of institutions, organizations
and people. This condition is particularly noticeable in
individuals that work their butts off, are honest in their
personal and business dealings, and don't have and/or take time
to look around Thus, this is not unique to you, but typical of
the majority of American small business owner/operators. It also
has the potential of proving to be a fatal flaw/blind spot for
this class of our society.

One example is your suggestion that we privatize many or even all
governmental activities. The recent items both in the media and
posted on the news groups about the problems with the "big dig"
stree/tunnel system in Boston that was designed and built by
private industry suggests this may not be entirely correct. Many
governmental activities will never be profit producing, and thus
do not fit the privatization model. A few examples are law
enforcement, fire protection, emergency medical services,
education, mail delivery, and the courts. To be sure private
companies exist that "skim the cream" from these activities,
leaving the tax payers to subsidize the remaining unprofitable
operations, but IMNSHO this does not justify a blanket
privatization policy.

In other areas, activities that by all the theories should be
more efficient if privately run and minimally regulated such as
electric utilities and health care (at least on the large scale)
are not. Compare the electrical power availability during the
recent heat wave of our large urban areas with private power such
as Texas, New York City, and California, with the public power
areas such as the TVA or the municipally owned electric
utilities. Note that Canada with government spending the same
percent of GDP on health care as the United States (7%) has 100%
citizen coverage, while the United States spends another 14% of
its GDP through the "more efficient" private sector and still has
huge numbers of uninsured citizens. The cost of inadequate or
non-existant medical care for and increasingly large fraction of
our citizens is astronomical for society, just in lost wages and
taxes, and the infant mortality rate is many urban areas is now
at or above many third world countries. It is also known that
many easily treatable pre-/neo- natal conditions, if not
corrected, will result in low or non productive adults, and high
cost/maintenance students. Thus, a few dollars "saved" by not
providing up front health care, will cost hundreds to thousands
of dollars per year for the next 50, 60 or more years.

For the "free market" to operate (which by the way is not
synonymous with capitalism, as the first thing capitalists
generally try to do is subvert the "free market" and eliminate
competition thorough cartels, gentleman's agreements, subsidies,
tax abatements, licensure requirements, etc., etc.) is that money
losing activities must "go broke," and their markets, and other
assets be allocated to other activities or to their more
efficient competition. There are two fatal flaws: (1) "Book
keeping" has become so convoluted and arcane it is impossible to
tell the true financial situation of a transnational corporation
or large governmental entity. I suspect there are a large number
of other "Enrons" and "Orange Counties" in just the American
economy waiting to implode as soon as someone "looks behind the
curtain." (2) The Transnational corporations have become so
incestuous, and have sold the politicians on the idea they are so
integrated into the "brave new world order" economy that for all
practical purposes, they are too big to fail, e.g. Long Term
Capital Management. The result of this is that we now have a
class of "un-dead" vampire corporations sucking the life force
from their employees, suppliers, communities, and the economy.
Examples include the airlines, GMC and Ford. (Garlic anyone?
Where is that stake when I need it?)

Organizational and personal honesty are becoming increasingly
questionable, starting at the highest levels. Two recent
examples are the skimming of mutual fund profits by "late
trading" hedge funds with the cooperation of mutual fund
management for a share of the take, and post-dated stock options.
In addition to being dishonest, this directly impacts the prudent
individual attempting to save for their retirement. (Another
neo-con mantra)

With the huge increase in illegal immigration and immigrants, a
foundational shift has occurred in our society, especially in the
major urban areas. Not only are there problems with language and
education levels, but the public perception of the "way things
work," and "the way things ought to be," has shifted. In
addition to the huge numbers of low cost workers, we have also
imported the values of the third world countries they came from.
I make no value judgement on this, but when their home countries
are evaluated, these attitudes do not appear to be conductive to
legitimate long-term businesses, for example Miami, FL.

What does 9/11 have to do with anything? Has this simply
replaced "Remember the Alamo!" or "Remember the Maine!"?










Unka George
(George McDuffee)

....and at the end of the fight is a tombstone white
with the name of the late deceased, and
the epitaph drear:
?A Fool lies here, who tried to hustle the East.?

Rudyard Kipling The Naulahka, ch. 5, heading (1892).
.

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