Summations Only

No, I have been getting tired of statists being the only ones who are allowed an opinion, and who consider any opinion other than their own to be beyond the pale. They must think they have papal powers of infallibility or something.This thread is a prime example.So, I'll be posting some contrary opinions, and we'll see how statists like being picked on for a change.You up for that?

HUH?statists????????????????????

I shall be be looking forward to the entertainment.

So no context?Typical. Statist? Is that a new rightwing, Teabag term de jour?
If you are going to be posting more of these crazy, wackaloon opinions you might want to ahve something to back them up with.The first thing you might want to realize at a lot of us on the left are not enamored with Pelosi or Obama. They are too right wing for or tastes. So attacking them will probably seen as laughable.Bring it on.

Giving new meaning to the Shakespeare quote "my staff understands me" ... ?Enjoy

Statism: The practice or doctrine of giving a centralized government control over economic planning and policy.Statist - definition of statist by The Free DictionaryThe old Left-Right way of looking at things is clearly inadequate, so here is an article that might frame the issue a little more clearly:http://www.baen.com/chapters/axes.htm

I know what statist means but what the hell does that have to do with the topic?

Coyote, has anyone in your life ever told you that too much of anything is not a good thing?You like snickers bars? How would you like it if you are forced to only eat it for sustenance?I work for a private engineering firm. Most of our contracts are with private entities. My insurance is 100% paid for by the firm through private fundings. I think capitalism is a good thing. In fact, I love it. I make a living off of it.But this conservative banner of hands-off laissez-faire capitalist style is not only bad practice, I would argue that in some cases it is crimes against humanity.For example, in construction, contractors love to cut corners to be cheap. The stupid ones will do it in such a way that when things fail they will fail almost immediately. The smart ones will do it in such a way that things only fail years down the road or if something catastrophic happened. An example of this is what happened in the earthquake in Chile back in 2005 or so. Entire structures collapsed and there was one building that laid on its side. According to the design specs, things weren't suppose to fail this badly even in an earthquake of that magnitude. When they tested the reinforcing steel and concrete, they discovered that the private companies that did the construction decided to use cheap concrete and cheap steel. If there was no earthquake, the structure might have continued to stand for a very long time. And they were counting on it.This is why we have (gasp) government rules and regulations when it comes to quality control and quality assurance. And if the contractor doesn't adhere to the specs, then they get punished. Like last Thursday, when I checked the records, I noticed that some loads were from 2 to 12 minutes late to the site. They decided to pour the concrete anyway. So, I decided to not pay them for those loads. They were out some $20,000. And this was us deciding to give them a 15 minute leeway. Next time, we will give them a 10 minute leeway. If they decide to go out of specs again, we will cut off their pay check even more. And if they continue to decide to pour expired concrete, we will not renew their contract.Without the rules and regulations that are in place, our infrastructure would be collapsing around us right now. Pure capitalism is bullshit.Added by edit.And please don't try to make a come back by saying something like pure government is bullshit. I'm well aware of that. That's why we need a combo of both for things to work. Entities like the Soviet Union fail miserably because of it. I know, it's a simplistic view of it, but that's what I'm going with for now. That doesn't mean the opposite must be good.Isn't there a logical fallacy that describes this line of argument? A is the opposite of B. A is bad, therefore B must be good. Edited by yenmor, : No reason given.

I'm aware of all that. My job deals with construction at times also.But what we're seeing is increasing amounts of statism--central control of everything.If you look back in history, you'll see that statism has a poor track record. Two examples: East vs. West Germany, and North vs. South Korea. In each case the central planning/central control failed miserably and for very predictable reasons.We should take care that such doesn't happen here.

Can you point to an example of Central Planning in the US?

The recent health care bill is a very good example of central planning in the US.

Huh?Setting minimum standards is central planning?Do you know what "central planning" means?Where is "central planning" in the health care bill?

In engineering, we have a minimum requirement for everything from design to contract biddings to award to material inspection to labor hours to construction planning to .... etc. That's not central control. That's just common sense.The new health care law sets a minimum standard for the industry. Why is that any different than construction specs?

Because its OBAMA'S plan to destroy america and freedom as we know it.

As someone pointed this out before. There is nothing new with the aca. All of it were Republican ideas. Obama just xerox those ideas and fed them back to Republicans. And all of a sudden people like Romney went against their own proposals.