Quote: (04-21-2011 02:42 PM)Tuthmosis Wrote:
"A Day in the Life of Joe Middle-Class Republican":
I work as a consultant with clients of the government (local, state, federal) and business (small and fortune 500), and I've learned over all these years that pretty much all this liberal/conservative/left wing/right wing ideology is all BS. From my dealings with government agencies, I've seen the inefficiencies as proclaimed by right wing adherents. But what they fail to mention is that businesses have the same problems with inefficiencies/bureaucracy that the government has. I could tell you stories and you wouldn't be able to tell which was which. Now I'm not saying that I'm a fan of no regulation. I've worked enough to see how anything will be done to save or make a buck whether illegal or not, but I've also seen how laws really dampen doing any type of business, and cause inefficiencies.
With that being said, this country has not had anything resembling a "free market" in a long time. One good book on this subject is Triumphant Plutocracy; the story of American public life from 1870 to 1920 by Richard Pettigrew, a former US Senator (it can be found for free here
http://www.archive.org/details/triumphan...pettrich). It pretty much sums up how the government has been bought and paid for by large corporate interests.
Another good book is by Carroll Quigley and talks of corporate interests having control over economies as well by creating conflicting interests within countries. The conflicting parties constantly fight with one another, while they enrich themselves behind the scenes. ( Tragedy & Hope
http://sandiego.indymedia.org/media/2006/10/119975.pdf)
For a good history on the history of economics in the USA, see the book Corruption of Economics by Mason Gaffney
http://www.progress.org/gaffnint.htm It's an excellent book on how corporate interests dictate education to constantly develop supporters/detractors to suit their interests.
The best book I read on "free market" health care is "From Mutual Aid to the Welfare State: Fraternal Societies and Social Services, 1890-1967" by David T. Beito (bought from Amazon). It tells the story how poor Americans/immigrants/minorities afforded cheap, accessible health care and other social services despite low wages, corporate serfdom (coal mines, etc.), racism, etc. Now it wasn't without problems, but they provided the necessary services that people needed then and today (orphanages, old age homes, health insurance, life insurance, etc.). Why did they disappear? Because the New Deal and Unions passed and pushed for regulations that eventually made many of them illegal (such as lodge doctors) to impractical with tax rates (SS and Medicare and corporate sponsored insurances/benefits). For instance, did you know that it's illegal for hospitals to provide "free" health care in the US. Anything that receives government money, HAS to charge for services. See this old WSJ article...
http://www.mult-sclerosis.org/news/Jan20...eCare.html
The quotes in the book by those who opposed the New Deal/Union benefits are quite foretelling because they warned of all the problems we are experiencing today. What can be given (by the government/business) can easily be taken away (by the government/business).
With that being said, all the talk about liberals/conservatives and right/left is just a distraction to us ordinary folks that only serves a purpose to those in charge. There is no free market, there is no non-biased government. They are just one in the same. It doesn't matter if it's at the federal level or at the local level. The only thing that changes is the amount of dollars. It's all just a giant scam, and we're all just pawns in the game.
