Comment Re:I fail to see what is newsworthy (Score 1) 456
Let his family sell them on the free market, of course. What are you, some kind of communist?
Let his family sell them on the free market, of course. What are you, some kind of communist?
in truth a free market would almost never result in a monopoly.
On what do you base this conclusion? How much is "almost never"? What should we do when one does occur? Is it possible to understand the set of circumstances under which they occur? If so, should we use that understanding to try and prevent them from occurring?
You say that the free market is the reason AIG has been able to cause all kinds of trouble and in the same breath mention the big government bailout that kept them afloat. In this case, the market gave a solution to the problem but regulators stepped in and stopped it.
I don't think the pure free market can solve all problems (no one does, that is a straw man). But your shit stinks just as much. Stop making straw men, reactionary decisions, and appeals to emotion ("rape and pillage") and start making rational arguments.
This thread is ridiculous and a borderline straw man. Anyone who has taken econ 101 knows that the pure free market can lead to monopolies and inefficiencies due to externalities (among other things).
The problem I see is that legislators cause a problem in the free market through legislation (i.e. they are largely responsible for the local monopolies now held by the telecoms), and the way they want to fix it is to push through legislation that doesn't touch the root problem. Instead they should tackle the problem of what caused these monopolies and attack that. Net neutrality is a band-aid, albeit perhaps a necessary one.
I picked the same thing for the same reason. I always feel like I won a twisted lottery with health insurance. On the plus side, I will get way more money out of my insurance than I ever put in. On the down side, I have diabetes.
Look, we're trying to do some rabble rousing here and you are not helping.
Figure 40-minute newscast, 40-minute drama/show, 40 minutes advertising
FTFY
(Your point still stands. I agree with you.)
...on a plate
If that isn't an instance of the Broken Window Fallacy I don't know what is.
Oh, it is so simple.
*head explodes*
When fighting nature, either nature always wins or everyone loses. In this case, they are fighting artistic and entertainment nature. Art and entertainment need to be free and need to be shared. It is an important part of what it means to be a human being. What big media is doing is wrong in the sense that they think they can control and limit and even "bottle up" art and entertainment to maximize their profits.
This gets said a lot here. Every time, it is said without explaining why art and entertainment "need" to be free. This makes it come off like hippies raving due to a false sense of entitlement. So, please, explain why those things "need" to be free in a clear, logical statement.
The solution to the problem of the ultra-rich is not to add more taxes for the [well-off,ultra-rich] rich to then avoid. It is to make taxes flat and remove the loopholes. One could argue that the loopholes exist because the tax is so high it requires them to not hurt normal people.
I want to live in a country where I have a right to keep what I earn and decide how to spend it. I also want to aspire to become rich so my kids can have it better than I did.
I've heard the argument many times that the rich became so by standing on the backs of others. And that may be true to some extent. But you can't get rich without doing a lot of business, and that means producing a lot, paying a lot of people's salaries, etc.
Stop looking at anecdotal evidence about the extremely rich (buffet, gates, etc) and getting riled about the lifestyles they lead. They are not representative of the people being taxed. It is the successful business owners and professionals, people who have worked hard all their lives who will be hurt.
How can anyone say with a straight face that a progressive tax is more fair than a flat tax? All else being equal. (If it's not, then that is what we should focus on fixing)
IF I HAD A MINE SHAFT, I don't think I would just abandon it. There's got to be a better way. -- Jack Handley, The New Mexican, 1988.