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Old 08-03-2009, 09:46 PM
  #22  
FighterHayabusa
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Originally Posted by jungle View Post
Actually, the only way incentive is removed is by creating a monopoly and by killing any motive to conduct business with profit. It is blatant folly to proclaim that a government run monopoly created by fiat takes the place of honest competition.

Government has a function, unfortunately it has expanded that function well beyond all reasonable bounds and stiffled the private sector in direct proportion to it's expansion of monopolies. Many states have allowed private MVDs with very good results.

What we are seeing is redistribution and confiscation, not an honest effort to provide better service. Your public schools may be fine, but are all held to the same standard, is performance and merit equal to cost across the system? Could a private option do better? Why limit the right to choose?


How many of us would buy into the Social Security plan if not forced into it? How fast would the private company that offered such a plan be convicted of a felony and shut down?
To bring back an old argument though - private schools have not been killed by public education, and social security has not killed private investment in your own retirement. I think Social Security strikes a nice balance in this country: not saving for retirement should hurt, but it shouldn't be a death sentence. I don't mind at all that it is the least generous public retirement system of any western country, but I don't think we'd be better off without it at all. I also think public education is a big factor in the growth of the middle class in this country, and that a healthy middle class is necessary for sustained economic prosperity. Does that mean government can't go too far? Absolutely not. But the whole thing is an experiment, and some things just need to be tried out to see if they work over time.

I think laissez-faire capitalists are no less Utopian than Socialists. The reason things work so well in this country is not because of the existence of one or the other, but that the system forces moderation so neither could ever get their way, and change must occur slowly.

"It has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried."

Last edited by FighterHayabusa; 08-03-2009 at 09:48 PM. Reason: Add my favorite Churchill quote
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