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I actually identify as being libertarian more than anything. I am for a very small government and as much personal freedom as possible. Keep the roads paved, the water drinkable, and stay the fuck out of my business.
The difference between republicans and democrats are the special interest groups that attach themselves to one or the other. But like Mark says, they are both the same. Kerry and Bush are both members of the skull & bone club. Some secret society type of thing for a bunch of men from old money that are all the same no matter which party affiliation.
posted by Anne @ 12:57 PM
2 comments
2 Comments:
Well, a small government would be great, but as long as we have lots of market inefficiencies, we need a strong government. A couple of examples:
Power plants are actually not able to afford to produce cleaner fuel as long as their competing power plants are producing energy using dirty means. Government's role in regulating clean standards would make the playing field even for all competitors while ensuring for the external good of clean air!
I like to compare the function of the government to a condo association. If you want to have a security guard, a pool, and landscaping, fresh paint in the hallways, good building maintenance, etc… you are looking at pretty expensive fees. If you prefer to pay less in condo fees, you will be able to afford better luxuries for everything behind your condo door, but the services you receive and that affect everything outside of your private abode will be minimal.
A big issue right now: Health care. It attracts customers who the industry would be better off avoiding. Known as adverse selection, it is one of two main sorts of market failures. Adverse selection can be a problem when there is asymmetric information between the seller and the buyer; in particular, insurance will often not be profitable when buyers have better information about their risk of claiming than does the seller. Ideally, insurance premiums should be set according to the risk of a randomly selected person in the insured slice of the population (55-year-old male smokers, say). In practice, this means the average risk of that group. When there is adverse selection, people who know they have a higher risk of claiming than the average of the group will buy the insurance, whereas those who have a below-average risk may decide it is too expensive to be worth buying. In this case, premiums set according to the average risk will not be sufficient to cover the claims that eventually arise, because among the people who have bought the policy more will have above-average risk than below-average risk. Putting up the premium will not solve this problem, for as the premium rises the insurance policy will become unattractive to more of the people who know they have a lower risk of claiming.
Following that logic, the best way to keep the cost of insurance affordable and equitable to all people would be though an extremely large pool of people buying into the same policy and make it compulsory. Individual needs for healthcare balance out the market failure with such a large group of people as a nation.
I do respect the Libertarian view of things as well. I am more of a social libertarian though. Wow this is way too long for a comment. sorry! I guess you can get where I am coming from though. Hit me back with a comment if you want to talk more about this stuff. As you can see it really interests me! =)
A government can be strong and small in my opinion. I think we should have a flat tax, that is low, and should be the same for everyone. The government could manage on less, but instead we give it alot of money that is wasted on wars, weapons, and useless government agencies and programs.
I am for socialized medicine, I HATE insurance companies. I know some don't like the idea of socialized medicine, and I don't think we would need to pay out our asses in taxes for it either. The insurance companies, not to mention pharmacutical companies control our health care. I think of more as the sickness industry. The insurance companies, if you can get it, will charge a heafty penny for crap coverage, and God forbid that you have any pre-existing conditions.
I personally don't have insurance, by choice.
Off to work now, I'll comment more later.
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