Dom
Regular Member
imported post
Let's look at what issues are up for presidential debate. Healthcare, energy, and the economy.
For healthcare, this country used to have neighborhood doctors. There was no such thing as medical insurance. You'd go to Doc Smith down the street, tell him your problems, he'd prescribe something you could afford because there were no "prescription plans", and everything would be fine. Americans paid cash for the visit and prescriptions. Amazingly they were affordable! The HMO act of 1973 (i.e. regulation) killed our healthcare system.
For energy, demand for energy has been increasing along with the population increase. Refineries haven't kept up with population, why not? No new nuclear power plants have been built, why not? For refineries, it takes YEARS to get the proper permits and get through the red tape. For nuclear plants, it's even worse and the spectre of 3 Mile Island and Chernobyl in government has unrealistically stopped any new construction. Then there's the environmentalists worried about how a deer will react when it encounters a pipeline 10ft above its antlers. Too much regulation has kept domestic energy production artificially low.
For the economy, as I've stated we are not free market and look at the mess we're in. Our money is based not on any standard, but some ethereal concept. Do you know you can buy a gallon of gas for 30 cents? That's if you use a silver dollar. The same thing happened with capital that's happened with the dollar. Capital used to be based on savings, not so anymore. The Federal Reserve is a joke. They fiddle with the discount rate and never know which way to go and it usually has an opposite effect. How effective is the discount rate, when we're down to 1.5% now and mortgage rates are still higher than 5 years ago? Congress is worse than the Fed, they have no clue what to do but stick their grubby fingers into the market anyway when they screwed it up in the first place. Then we have these bailouts, which the stock market hasn't responded to and the banks being bailed out are flawed to begin with, and the bailout bills are loaded with pork. Let these dumb banks fail, there ARE strong banks out there and they're ready to buy up the failing ones. The market itself is the best market regulator, the government isn't competent enought to mess with it. Now our government is going to invest in banks, has already invested in bad, bad mortgages...which are the result of the government giving credit to unworthy creditors through Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (more stupid regulation)...and who knows what else. To top it all off, based on the current polls we're going to elect a president who is going to raise taxes just like Hoover in 1929.
BTW, I don't know what this has to do with OCDO :?.
When have we had a completely free market? Governments screw with the markets and always have.
Let's look at what issues are up for presidential debate. Healthcare, energy, and the economy.
For healthcare, this country used to have neighborhood doctors. There was no such thing as medical insurance. You'd go to Doc Smith down the street, tell him your problems, he'd prescribe something you could afford because there were no "prescription plans", and everything would be fine. Americans paid cash for the visit and prescriptions. Amazingly they were affordable! The HMO act of 1973 (i.e. regulation) killed our healthcare system.
For energy, demand for energy has been increasing along with the population increase. Refineries haven't kept up with population, why not? No new nuclear power plants have been built, why not? For refineries, it takes YEARS to get the proper permits and get through the red tape. For nuclear plants, it's even worse and the spectre of 3 Mile Island and Chernobyl in government has unrealistically stopped any new construction. Then there's the environmentalists worried about how a deer will react when it encounters a pipeline 10ft above its antlers. Too much regulation has kept domestic energy production artificially low.
For the economy, as I've stated we are not free market and look at the mess we're in. Our money is based not on any standard, but some ethereal concept. Do you know you can buy a gallon of gas for 30 cents? That's if you use a silver dollar. The same thing happened with capital that's happened with the dollar. Capital used to be based on savings, not so anymore. The Federal Reserve is a joke. They fiddle with the discount rate and never know which way to go and it usually has an opposite effect. How effective is the discount rate, when we're down to 1.5% now and mortgage rates are still higher than 5 years ago? Congress is worse than the Fed, they have no clue what to do but stick their grubby fingers into the market anyway when they screwed it up in the first place. Then we have these bailouts, which the stock market hasn't responded to and the banks being bailed out are flawed to begin with, and the bailout bills are loaded with pork. Let these dumb banks fail, there ARE strong banks out there and they're ready to buy up the failing ones. The market itself is the best market regulator, the government isn't competent enought to mess with it. Now our government is going to invest in banks, has already invested in bad, bad mortgages...which are the result of the government giving credit to unworthy creditors through Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (more stupid regulation)...and who knows what else. To top it all off, based on the current polls we're going to elect a president who is going to raise taxes just like Hoover in 1929.
BTW, I don't know what this has to do with OCDO :?.