Ron Paul and Libertarian ideas have been tried failed

i would say it is more like "we have become a corporatist/fascist/war-mongering/debt-ridden/police state and if we dont do something different very soon we will self-destruct".

i would argue that we have to get rid of the regulations that only serve corporate interests at the expense of the average american. the regulations that benefit large multi-national corporations. the regulations that these very corporations write and hand off to our elected officials to pass.

i read an article yesterday talking about how mcdonalds was one of 1,800 "small business" to get an exemption from obamacare. wtf is that?

the idea that the current way we do things will solve all problems is also proving to be wrong. more often than not, this cozy relationship b/t the government and large corporations/wall street is proving to be a giant rip-off...just look at the income gap b/t the top 1% and the rest of us - under whose leadership has this happened? it aint libertarians!

i have to admit id take the $10 plane for 90% off. thats a hell of a bargain! now, im not saying id be inline for the inaugural flight, but if they didnt have any problems in the first couple weeks i wouldnt have reservations. im also someone who has flown aeromexico several times, so im probably more lenient than others!:grin:

 

Ok, you call yourself a "libertarian" and have ideas that many other libertarians don't have and prominent libertarians including Ron Paul,the Kochs and other leaders are just so misinformed and vote and work hand in hand with the GOP because they don't understand "ibertariansism" in your opinion. Got it.

 

I'll be honest, the only reason why I thought of the airplane example is because I love watching Air Crash Investigation. And if there's one thing I've learnt about it, is that government airplane safety regulations have made things a hell of a lot better than planes before. The number of accidents (and mind you, this is just from the crashes deemed attention-grabbing enough to be on Investigation) that are down to sub-standard crafts, lax pilot training or regulation is staggering.

One interesting thing to note about USA debt. Thanks entirely to the free market, USA will always have serious debt. Because US bonds are considered safe assets, 1) pension schemes and other such investment vehicles are obliged to have them in their portfolio (or at least AAA rated assets), and 2) people flee to them in times of panic. This drives up US bond prices, so the interest rate the US has to pay out is smaller. Plus USD is the world reserve currency, and you get a country who cannot resist debt, because it is just so damn cheap.

Interesting, but how would you do this without getting rid of lobbyists? If your problem with the government regulation is that it benefits corporations, then shouldn't uppermost in your agenda to prevent future corporate-written government regulation?


Oh right....I just realised you advocated changing the entire system. Well, that's not going to happen any time soon.

 

Actually Howard Roark did have employees including draftsmen. They are specifically mentioned in the later chapters and are described as people like Roark.

Anyway that was a work of fiction and if an architect actually did things the way Howard Roark did things they would be broke from getting sued, have almost none of their projects permitted and have lost their license.

 

say what? you want to place "entire" blame on the free market for our national debt? its got nothing to do w/ government spending? i would argue that we dont have a "free market" in this country - we have a crony capitalist system. there is nothing "free market" about bailouts, stimulus packages, no bid contracts and other forms of corporate welfare.

not as long as people continue to vote for republicans and democrats.

 

what ideas would those be?

where did i say that ron paul and the kochs are misinformed? i have been saying all along that you are misinformed.

where have i said this?

actually, you dont.

and ill ask for a 3rd time - where did i advocate no stop lights, meat inspectors or restaurant inspectors?

 

No, what I mean is that there is little financial incentive (or indeed reason) for the US not to have debt. To use a children analogy, the US is like the biggest kid in the playground who can borrow at low interest rates from all the other weaker children. Why should the biggest kid just 'decide' not to have any debt? It's ridiculously cheap, virtually nobody believes the big kid will default, so he'll continue to borrow.

This has nothing to do with the government system, but the financial incentives behind American borrowing.

Have you read Too Big to Fail by Andrew Sorkin? It's a great book about the bailout and the formation and passing of TARP.