Democrats are bad...

I missed this previously.

The republicans are the only ELECTABLE alternatives to the Dems, thus going from the frying pan into the fire.

 

The "party of no" seems to currently own that mentality. Vote for us cause we're not like the democrats!. Ummm. No thanks.

 

Here we go again!
tomc, what should the limits be & who should be the "Limit Czar"?

 

That link is an opinion of a nutcase, not factual proof of the financial performance of government programs. It does however prove that your judgment is horrible.

I agree that the mint runs like a business and probably makes a profit.

 

401k's are the modern day equivalent to the 80's pyramid schemes. Most or all of them won't be there when the claimant steps forward to recieve it. Compliments of capitalism, the market, or whatever other word substitutes for rape that you want to throw in there, fully approved and supported by your friendly capitalist party, the RNC.
Mine disappeared last year. I personally know a "business man" who never contributed to the retirement plan (but of course took the payroll deductions). He had to pay a fine as punishment. I'm sure he's sorry though, and that was "just a business decision", I'm sure. Many little Bernie Madoff's in the "capitalistic" corporate society today. We ain't even seen the tip of the iceberg yet.
But you all just keep right on supporting your corporate sponsors and hope for the best...ok?

 

Actually, the list is just a compilation from many sources according to the web site. How you could know if one or any of them are "nut cases" I can't comprehend. If you have a problem with the list as presented, disprove it; don’t employ the fallacy of dismissal without proof. And please, don’t even try and use a fallacious argument as proof of my judgment.

On the mint running well, there is a reason. Private industry isn’t allowed to coin money. Private industry has no reason to corrupt policy by influencing elected officials. Once the corrupting influence is taken out of the equation, government agencies do just fine on their own. Perhaps it never was government’s inability to run agencies that was the problem. Maybe it was private industry's corrupting influence all along? Hum?

 

I don't need to disprove anything from that ridiculous website. If you are going to post something, it needs to come from a reputable source. If that is your idea of a reputable source, then you need help (aka poor judgment).

Funny thing, it sounds as though the reason you gave for the mint being successful is that they are a monopoly. Pretty easy to succeed when you have no competition. Are you really going to start a "chicken & egg" discussion about corruption. Maybe you should investigate municpal mercantile agencies across the US. Their sole purpose is to extort money from local businesses under the guise of city fees.

 

(aka your opinion) I say many government agencies on that list run well. The burden of proof you want doesn't exist. It’s too subjective.

I never characterized it as a monopoly and I know that it is a monopoly but that isn't why it is successful. It is successful because nobody can skew legislation to undermine what it does as an organization. Unlike health care for instance that has been designed so that insurance companies get to insure the cream of the crop until these same people get older and start needing more care, then they become the tax payer's burden. If government monopolies succeed simply because they are monopolies, wouldn't it make perfect sense to make health care a government monopoly? Please don't give me circular logic as a reply.

 

If I provided you with circular logic, at least we would have some as your posts don't include logic. It is my opinion that the website you linked is not reputable. Other members also pointed it out. Are you claiming that the site IS reputable?

The mint makes money because it has a nice tidy profit margin that is unaffected by competition. If you want to go on believing that it has something to do with the lack of legislative corruption, far be it for me to ruin your party. And what are you babbling about healthcare and circular logic? Define succeed? Do you want everyone to live or die?

 

Any government agency can make money if they take something that is worth little and sell it to another government agency for more. Take a 10 cent circle of metal and sell it to the Federal Reserve for 25 cents. 150% profit! Woo Hoo!

How do you do that with healthcare?

I guess they could swap out our medicine for sugar pills (but still charge us medicine prices) like they swapped out gold and silver for worthless metals (but still sell them to us for full price). It would certainly make a profit and make them hella efficient.

And as far as legislative corruption...I don't think the numerous redesigns of our coins over the last decade came about on its own and just because it was a cool idea. The government saw it as a money maker for themselves and pushed it. The Treasury, Mint Director, Legislators. Is that different than the Pharma industry seeing a profit and lobbying the administration for legislation to make it happen? More incestuous, yes. But not much different in the grand scheme of things.

 

Just a quick response to the pharma comment. The cent presently costs about 2 cents to produce. Does the pharma industry sell their drugs at half their cost? Point being pharma companies operate at mega profits, spending mega dollars lobbying, advertising, and peddling their form of crack to whomever they can get to buy it, which is a bit different than the mint. The mint has no competition. Ok. The pharma industry WON'T ALLOW drugs to be imported from a cheap source. Many are the very same drugs they've peddled to the sources that we could potentially purchase, that they've sold CHEAPER to them, than they would have to it's own citizens (and I bet they still made a tidy profit selling at the cheaper price) for much bigger profits. (and aren't the 'would be sellers' making a profit? They're able to sell us them so I would conclude they are.) So what's that say about their markup, hence the profit (while not allowing competition) for them? It says that there's probably something wrong with the corporate mentality that created the kooky scenario to begin with. But that's "just business" I suppose. Meanwhile, raising minimum wage is a bad idea (according to the right).Poor comparison Stu.
Oh...by the way...the right's representative party is all for this form of rape.

 

It's a bad idea for the people working for minimum wage. The minimum wage is merely one more way the elitist left works to keep people in poverty. "Hey, the working is class is getting a bit restless, let's throw them another 50 cents an hour & keep 'em working at a fast food joint rather than work to create an environment where everyone has a chance to thrive".

The elitist left way:
Keep as many people as possible in minimum wage jobs (raise the wage periodically to make them feel indebted to the party), supplement their incomes from the government cofers rather than teach them ways to improve their lives & subsidize their housing so we can keep them all rounded up.

Just wait until the same plan is expanded to include the middle class!

 

David are you sugesting that there shoudnt be a minimum wage?

 

All due respect DeOrc...don't know about the UK, but the US drug companies give lots of "goodies" away to the medical community itself (in the way of lunch and dinner tabs for large staffs, free office supplies, free luggage, and on and on and on) in promotion of their latest drug that they want the medical community to distribute for them. The pharma boys stopped being a research and development entity long ago (unless you consider R&D being trying to develop drugs that would best "sell" to the public for anything from a hangnail, to a new drug to stop you from disliking the color blue). There are drug "reps" that their only job is to give away perks and sell drugs. Monumental amounts of money is wasted on on these kinds of things, then the people that actually NEED drugs wind up paying through the nose for this street corner style pushing.
The point is the same as with the rest of corporate America. Big business extracts every penny they can from "the consumer", and it's NEVER ENOUGH. Always looking for a way to extract MORE, and normally at the expense of the remaining society. Piss away billions, but a three percent raise isn't possible due to "tough economic times", as they cut and combine labor, outsource, all while finding cool accounting and bookkeeping tricks to extract MORE from stockholders.
This is what big pharma is all about. Nothing but $$$$.
Lotsa $$$$ in "treating" some condition (real or fabricated) rather than cure it. When is the last time you got more than the standard 3 minutes of your doctor's time before they reach for the multiple prescription pads?
When is the last time they actually cured anything? Polio?
A drug for maintaining an erection for three days, one for your leg shaking too much, one to counter the effects of some other drug. One to treat bloating from all the Doritos you ate while watching American Idol, one for any of an infinite number of "symptoms" of a lazy, stupid society and ignorant America. Oh and health care for everyone is a bad idea (I guess because they aren't able to extract ENOUGH mega profits if they have to give out their drugs cheaper or God forbid, FREE)....FREE is only for medical staff and related corporate drug pushers.
Remember....go to the doctor today and tell him you saw the new ad for "Phuckitall" and you'd like a prescription right away, and don't forget to tell him about some pain you have with your pinky that you broke several decades ago. 3 minutes of your doctor's time and some corporate backing is all you need!
Meanwhile Rush Limbaugh can get his maid to get him his drugs. (although he probably needs drugs to relieve the stress placed on his neck and spine from having to carry around that fat head of his).
Same with all the corporate bloodsuckers. Brought to you BOLDLY, by the republican party.
.

 

Not necessarily.
I am opposed to the way the elite left uses the minimum wage to keep the poor poor.

 

In one rambling post, tomc was able to attack:
1) Pharma
2) Business as a whole
3) Employees
4) Medical patients
5) Doctors
6) Media personalities

Wow, this is a far reaching conspiracy that tomc faces!
You forgot to mention Bush (or is it a given now that Bush is to blame for everything you rail against?).

 

Republicans would rather pretend that the world started on January 20th 2010 and that it is only slightly over a year old. Don't mention Bush, or TARP, or deficit spending, or borrowing from China, or recession/depression, or wars kept off of books, or bailouts, or anything else before that date because then we Republicans don't look so good. I'm not at all surprised to watch Republicans wince when Bush’s name is mentioned but the rest of us do not indulge in selective memory. Selective memory only serves the base of the Republican Party.

 

Can you expound a bit more on that David please, you say the left use it to keep the poor-poor but if there was no minimum wage then you could have a situation were people were paid the same as in a 3rd world country. How do you see the right using it any differently?