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Obama Demagogues Private Enterprise

Brad493 Wrote: Aug 18, 2010 9:58 AM

You ignore the big problem with outsourcing to private industry. It doesn't shrink government it makes it more bloated because all these companies are the ones lobbying congress and buying them off. You think Private Prisons are a good Idea yet you think that we should be legalizing drugs. PRIVATE ENTERPRISE DOESN'T WORK LIKE THAT. why is marijuana still illegal??? Because of the Free Market you embrace. Chemical, Liquor, Beer, Tobacco, Prison, Security, Drug Testing, Paper companies all lobby to keep marijuana and hemp illegal in this country. I DON'T SEE HOW ANYBODY CAN CLAIM TO BE A LIBETARIAN OR FREE MARKETS UNTIL THEY RECOGNIZE THAT WE HAVE TO GET CORPORATIONS OUT OF POLITICS.

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Bernhard Wrote: Aug 18, 2010 11:35 AM

Brad, you're beating John Stossel's own horse.
John is one of America's most outspoken proponents of ""GET[TING] CORPORATIONS OUT OF POLITICS." Just read his other columns. There are dozens about the unholy lovechild that is private-public collusion.

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ClaireSolt Wrote: Aug 18, 2010 11:42 AM

How about we advocate the reverse too. If politicians would stop using companies as whipping boys, then the companies would have little interest in trying to protect their interests against the demagogues who demonize them.

Close the candy store and enact a simple tax code that does not permit special favors.

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Ike22 Wrote: Aug 18, 2010 11:51 AM

If the politicians had no power over the economy, they could yap about companies all they wanted and it would not matter. What makes the companies spend money - whether to protect themselves from government or to get favors from government, no matter - is the overwhelming fact that people with no financial stake in their companies, no experience in their line of work and no interest in operating the companies for a profit have the power to shut them down, cause them to lose money, charge them with crimes for selling and buying or selling "too high" or "too low". The power in the hands of the politicians makes it necessary for companies ... no, the people who own companies, to bribe the politicians in order to try to prevent the...

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Obama Demagogues Private Enterprise

Last weekend, President Obama pandered for votes by trashing Social Security privatization.

"I'd have thought that debate would've been put to rest once and for all by the financial crisis we've just experienced," Obama said. "(N)o one would want to place bets with Social Security on Wall Street."

Such demagoguery sells. It's probably been poll-tested. Many Americans fear privatizing anything they've come to view as government work. They object to privately managed roads, independent charter schools, private prisons, etc., despite private companies' repeated success at providing better service while lowering costs.

Private retirement accounts seem particularly threatening. Rep. Paul Ryan

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