Thread: Libertarian Test

Originally Posted by Boon Mee

Privitizing utilities makes the most sense - their called Co-Ops and can keep costs down 'cuz there's an incentive to make a profit.

555
Pure BM.

^^
Heh...pure Big Government affectionado?

Originally Posted by Boon Mee

Just to cite one of your mistaken beliefs

Yours are much more entertaining for me to read ...

Keep goose stepping to Reagan's voodoo economics mate ... ...

There has been no trickle down to the consumer since Reagan privatized the utility companies. NONE ... ZILCH ... Paid for by the taxpayer and sold to investors for pennies on the dollar ... And sold over and over for mega profits ... Meanwhile, no benefit, to the consumer.

Originally Posted by Boon Mee

Just to cite one of your mistaken beliefs - Utilities.

Competition drives prices down. Utilities are government controlled because the supply is usually from a limited source. How could there be competing supplies of water or hydro-electric power?

^^
Rubbish

When I lived in the States the community in which I received my electricity was organized around a Co-Op and they kept the costs down vs. other counties around us. My KW per hour rate was significantly cheaper than the average paid by non Co-Ops.

Howzat 'trickle down' hopey changie thing gonna work out for you when the EPA jacks up your electric rates?

btw

How old was your co-op? Do you think FDR helped get it started?

How was it not socialist in nature?

Originally Posted by Humbert

Originally Posted by Boon Mee

Just to cite one of your mistaken beliefs - Utilities.

Competition drives prices down. Utilities are government controlled because the supply is usually from a limited source. How could there be competing supplies of water or hydro-electric power?

Depends on where you buy the electricity and how efficient the source is whether it's nuclear, coal or hydro-electric. Depends too on the location of the end user - what his rate is. Taxes play a significant role too.

Originally Posted by mao say dung

Originally Posted by Rainfall

It was also too expensive for the market in Germany, and sub-standard quality.

Well, that's Made in China for ya.

How much do Russian retail workers make?

More than American ones is my guess. How many more Russian tourists than Americans come to Thailand, three, four times?

Enron tried to make electricity a traded commodity in the West and the consumer ended up seeing big increases in their bills.
If the power grid was modernized it would be easier to bring costs down by managing the supply more efficiently.
Not that easy to privatize utilities without increasing costs to the consumer.

Originally Posted by Rainfall

How many more Russian tourists than Americans come to Thailand, three, four times?

Which is proof of what?

Growing middle class?

Originally Posted by Humbert

Enron tried to make electricity a traded commodity in the West and the consumer ended up seeing big increases in their bills.
If the power grid was modernized it would be easier to bring costs down by managing the supply more efficiently.
Not that easy to privatize utilities without increasing costs to the consumer.

Those Enron boys got a little carried away with their model.

Talking about upgrading the power grid, well, after this so-called War on Coal Obama is initiating who knows where the funds will come from. Folks will have to go back to Depression-Era 40 watt light bulbs to illuminate their dwellings and what about all those electric cars that require expensive charging after a few miles?

Originally Posted by Boon Mee

Talking about upgrading the power grid, well, after this so-called War on Coal Obama is initiating who knows where the funds will come from. Folks will have to go back to Depression-Era 40 watt light bulbs to illuminate their dwellings and what about all those electric cars that require expensive charging after a few miles?

The 40% increase in natural gas production in the US has more than made up for the coal and at a much lower cost to the environment.

Average wage in Moscow, the highest in the country, is $1700/month. Country average is more like $800.

Travel to Thailand has yet to become the measure of how well an economy is doing.

Originally Posted by Boon Mee

Originally Posted by Humbert

Enron tried to make electricity a traded commodity in the West and the consumer ended up seeing big increases in their bills.
If the power grid was modernized it would be easier to bring costs down by managing the supply more efficiently.
Not that easy to privatize utilities without increasing costs to the consumer.

Those Enron boys got a little carried away with their model.

Talking about upgrading the power grid, well, after this so-called War on Coal Obama is initiating who knows where the funds will come from. Folks will have to go back to Depression-Era 40 watt light bulbs to illuminate their dwellings and what about all those electric cars that require expensive charging after a few miles?

War on coal? The USA sold more coal internationally last year than ever before. The point maybe you should be trying to make is how hypocritical it is of the USA to be moving towards cleaner energy sources while selling coal to China ... Which basically means keeping open and opening new factories for Chinese workers while putting more American workers out of work.

^
Haven't been keeping up with the news there Stores? Obama's got a War on Coal going. Part of his "Fundamentally Transforming America" Program.

Originally Posted by Storekeeper

Prisons: Louisiana sure is a model for privatization ... Uh huh, yeah right ... IMHO those who support privatization of prisons are just plain cuckoo for cocoa puffs.

i remember reading an article recently which reported that some state or county made a deal with a privatized prison on a minimum occupancy rate.

that, quite obviously, is completely insane.

Is it not a beautiful symbol of capitalism? Incarceration rates, lenght of stay, parole or not decided by profit interests? Cases where judges collect kickbacks for putting people in jail have already been reported. The US is an utterly perverted nation.

I think a BMW is a more appropriate symbol of capitalism.

Privatized prisons are a manifestation of corruption fueled by an ideology and a religious fundamentalism that feed off of and into each other.

And that is perverse.

Isn't capitalism the corrupt, religious fundamentalist ideology?

You really think ol' Adam Smith promoted private prisons and steroid-sucking dickless wonders driving around Bagdad with great big guns killing people for money?

Capitalism comes in many flavors. So-called "neo-liberalism" is just one of them.

Originally Posted by Boon Mee

Those Enron boys got a little carried away with their model.

Understatement of the century there. That is a classic example of a privatization failure and effectively renders your entire argument moot.

Originally Posted by Boon Mee

Haven't been keeping up with the news there Stores? Obama's got a War on Coal going.

Would that be by exporting it? America is exporting record levels of the stuff. Coal is a dirty fuel and should be fazed out. It is toxic to the environment in multiple ways and is also harmful to humans. There should be a war on coal.

Originally Posted by Rainfall

Growing middle class?

You asserted that retail workers in Russia earn more than their counterparts in the US. It doesn't prove that though does it?