Scrat wrote:Kuvasz - I am happy--proud, in fact--to concede that Republicans tend to be pro-business and that businesses tend to act in their own best interests. I am likewise happy to concede that Democrats are pro-entitlement and so reap the monies of labor unions that exist primarily to shield their members from having to compete on a level field in the labor market.
as to your last remarks, viz., "...unions that exist primarlity to shield their members from having to compete ...." is so devoid of historical context as to be as meaningless as saying that ice cream has no bones.
note the biggest issue facing labor over the past decade has been NAFTA and that a democratic president signed the accord. that shows the muscle of labor? oh boy, you betcha'.
note that the largest episodes ever of government largesse has been to corporations, corporations which fleeced their stockholders and investors, viz., the S & L banking crisis, particulary, the Silverado banking and trust run by George W Bush's brother Neil Bush.
note how much US taxpayer dollars went to bail out "business" people who, like you, preach the almighty power of unfettered capitalism and an every man for himself attitude, but really rely on the government when things go bad for them.
http://www.personal.psu.edu/users/j/m/jma233/assignment7.html
Here are some facts on the infamous S&L scandal of the eighties, which we are still paying for.
The Savings and Loan scandal is the largest theft in the history of the world.
Deregulation eased restrictions so much that S&L owners could lend themselves money.
The Garn Institute of Finance, named after Senator Jake Garn, co-authored the deregulation of the industry and received $2.2 million from industry executives.
Neil Bush, George Bush's son, never served time in jail for his part in running an S&L into the ground.
Representative Fernard St. Germain, who was head of the House of Representatives banking, co-authored the deregulation and was voted out of office after other questionable dealings and was sent back to D.C. as an S&L lobbyist.
Charles Keating, when asked if massive lobbying efforts had influenced the government officials, he replies, "I certainly hope so."
The rip-off began in 1980 when the government raised the federal insurance on S&L's from $40,000 to $100,000 even though the typical savings account was only around $6000.
Some of the seized assets were a buffalo sperm bank, a racehorse with syphilis, and a kitty litter mine.
James Fail invested $1000 of his own money to purchase 15 failing S&L's. The government reimbursed him $1.85 billion in federal subsidies.
It sometimes took over 7 years to close failing S&L's by the government.
When S&L owners who stole millions went to jail, their sentences were typically one-fifth that of the average bank robber.
The government bail out will cost the taxpayers around $1.4 trillion dollars when it is over.
If the White House had stepped in and bailed out the S&L's in 1986 instead of delaying until after the 1988 elections, the cost might have been only $20 billion.
With the money lost from the S&L scandals, the government could have provided prenatal care for every American child for the next 2,300 years.
With the money lost from the S&L scandals, the government could have purchased 5 million average homes.
The authors of "Inside Job", a book about the S&L scandal, and found criminal activity at every S&L they investigated."
It seems that you prefer a government more beholden to corporations, while i consider the proper role of government to foster justice for the citizens.
The best remarks about this I list with reference.
"The normal and proper aim of the corporate community is to make money for its managers and for the owners of business all the better if its members also contribute to the general prosperity. However, business acts on the prevailing business philosophy, which claims that corporate self-interest eventually produces the general interest. This comfortable belief rests on misinterpretation of the theory of market rationality proposed by Adam Smith.
"He would have found the market primitivism of the current day unrecognizable. He saw the necessity for public intervention to create or sustain the public interest, and took for granted the existence of a government responsible to the community as a whole, providing the structure within which the economy functions.
"
Classical political thought says that the purpose of government is to do justice for its citizens. Part of this obligation is to foster conditions in which wealth is produced. The obligation is not met by substituting the wealth-producer for the government.
"Business looks after the interests of businessmen and corporation stockholders. Stark and selfish self-interest obviously is not what motivates most American businessmen and -women, but it is the doctrine of the contemporary corporation and of the modern American business school."
"It does not automatically serve the general interest, as any 18th century rationalist would acknowledge - or any 21st century realist."
William Pfatt
again:
"Classical political thought says that the purpose of government is to do justice for its citizens. Part of this obligation is to foster conditions in which wealth is produced. The obligation is not met by substituting the wealth-producer for the government."
