Posted:
August 12, 2009 3:07 PM | Post #182241—in reply to #176567 |
Jacek K.
TC Master
Mother tongue: Polish
Joined: February 18, 2003
Location: Poland | I don't think that piece is about pollution. It's about a wasteful attitude.
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Posted:
August 12, 2009 3:08 PM | Post #182242—in reply to #182241 |
John Bunch
Expert    Mother tongue: EnglishPosts: 1807 Joined: February 1, 2008 Location: United States | Have you never heard of the "tragedy of the commons", Jacek ? It states that things go to hell when no one owns them. That is one reason why the oceans are being fished out: because no one owns the seas and thus there is no incentive for individuals to not overfish them. As many ("The Economist magazine", etc.) have pointed out, if areas of sea were owned by people or companies, there would be stewardship and an incentive to protect them (and just because a company owns it would not mean that society, in the form of government, would have no say, it would and it could set rules for use). But of course that does not fit into the Naomi Klein worldview of how capitalism destroys everything.
The tragedy of the commons (warning: this is counter-intuitive, so won't fit neatly into the Leftist Manichean worldview !  ):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tragedy_of_the_commons
[Edited by John Bunch on August 12, 2009 3:12 PM]
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Posted:
August 12, 2009 3:14 PM | Post #182244—in reply to #182242 |
Jacek K.
TC Master
Mother tongue: Polish
Joined: February 18, 2003
Location: Poland | No, I wouldn't like US companies to own all the oceans and seas of the world.
Yes, Naomi Klein has very radical views.
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Posted:
August 12, 2009 3:17 PM | Post #182245—in reply to #182244 |
John Bunch
Expert Mother tongue: EnglishPosts: 1807 Joined: February 1, 2008 Location: United States | But as I mentioned, companies would be subject to governmental rules. They would have to meet requirements (free market capitalism doesn't function well without government as the "referee"). BTW, I also favor this solution for the rain forest. Let individuals and companies buy it up because they will then protect it. But then make sure that government is there to set rules. What we now have is anarchy, where no one owns the seas and forests, and there is no one there to protect it.
BTW, I made a mistake earlier, it was Nixon who crated the EPA. Teddy Roosevelt created the U.S. Park system. Both were Republicans.
[Edited by John Bunch on August 12, 2009 3:18 PM]
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Posted:
August 12, 2009 3:32 PM | Post #182248—in reply to #182108 |
Jacek K.
TC Master
Mother tongue: Polish
Joined: February 18, 2003
Location: Poland | | Originally written by Nanna Mercer on August 11, 2009 6:05 PM
Here’s what Palin said on her Facebook page Friday, in her first online comments since quitting as Alaska governor.
“The America I know and love is not one in which my parents or my baby with Down Syndrome will have to stand in front of Obama’s ‘death panel’ so his bureaucrats can decide, based on a subjective judgment of their ‘level of productivity in society’ whether they are worthy of health care.”
http://egan.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/08/09/palins-poison/?em
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The "death panels" are already here
Sorry, Sarah Palin -- rationing of care? Private companies are already doing it, with sometimes fatal results
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2009/08/11/denial_of_care/index.html?source=newsletter
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Posted:
August 13, 2009 1:56 AM | Post #182262—in reply to #182248 |
John Bunch
Expert Mother tongue: EnglishPosts: 1807 Joined: February 1, 2008 Location: United States | I would suggest the following system for "health care reform":
- Total tax reform to get rid of health care being tied to your employer
- A free market with insurance companies truly competing with each other
- Insurance companies reinsuring each other (as in Switzerland) so that they can insure people with pre-existing conditions
- Tort reform that would reduce "defensive medicine" and cost increases due to unnecessary lawsuits
- Universal health care
- People buying health care and not using it for routine checkups, but only for serious diseases.
Under my system of free + universal health care, anyone who could not afford a policy would get a check in the mail, or a credit to buy the health care policy of their choice. If they could not figure it out, there would be a 1-800 number to help them go through it. Just sending the poor checks every month would be far less costly than "ObamaCare".
This to be is so obvious that anyone could figure it out. If our 2 political parties were not so incompetent and inane, this would have been done long ago.
[Edited by John Bunch on August 13, 2009 1:58 AM]
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Posted:
August 13, 2009 2:02 AM | Post #182264—in reply to #182262 |
John Bunch
Expert Mother tongue: EnglishPosts: 1807 Joined: February 1, 2008 Location: United States | My favorite lesbian pundit (Camille Paglia), on Obama, the Democrats, and the incompetence of both parties:
http://www.salon.com/opinion/paglia/2009/08/12/town_halls/
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Posted:
August 13, 2009 4:02 AM | Post #182276—in reply to #182262 |
Jacek K.
TC Master
Mother tongue: Polish
Joined: February 18, 2003
Location: Poland | It's high time to do something about this. Yes, you can. From http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/aug/11/nhs-united-states-republican-health:
Defenders of Britain's system point out that the UK spends less per head on healthcare but has a higher life expectancy than the US. The World Health Organisation ranks Britain's healthcare as 18th in the world, while the US is in 37th place. The British Medical Association said a majority of Britain's doctors have consistently supported public provision of healthcare. A spokeswoman said the association's 140,000 members were sceptical about the US approach to medicine: "Doctors and the public here are appalled that there are so many people on the US who don't have proper access to healthcare. It's something we would find very, very shocking."
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Posted:
August 13, 2009 5:46 AM | Post #182290—in reply to #182245 |
Nanna Mercer
Expert   Mother tongues: English, DanishPosts: 9024 Joined: February 12, 2005 Location: Denmark | | Originally written by John Bunch on August 12, 2009 9:17 PM
But as I mentioned, companies would be subject to governmental rules. They would have to meet requirements (free market capitalism doesn't function well without government as the "referee"). |
While not aware of every piece of news regarding this matter, I do know that the Danish Minister for Fisheries etc., have applied quite a bit of pressure on the Swedish minister to stop Green Peace dumping rocks on the bottom of the sea in order to stop bottom trawling which is damaging to the seas and the creatures in it.
The Swedes had already given Green Peace the asked for permission. Now, it has become an issue and it has raised many questions about the Danish Fisheries minister (Eva Kjer hansen) being a bit too friendly with major companies involved in fishing and marketing of seafood.
The Danish Fishing industry has over-fished so badly and played so hard and fast with fishing quotas that there are almost no fish to be had. No tuna, no cod fish and the salmon is filled with Dioxin. Velbekomme!
Government involvement is not assurance that everything will be honky dory.
Nanna
[Edited by Nanna Mercer on August 13, 2009 5:49 AM]
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Posted:
August 13, 2009 5:54 AM | Post #182291—in reply to #176567 |
Jacek K.
TC Master
Mother tongue: Polish
Joined: February 18, 2003
Location: Poland | Come to think about it, the American NHS could be as well private, just as a part of the US military operations in Iraq is (Blackwater & Co.), provided of course that it would be also available to the 40+ million of uninsured and would at least match the performnace of the UK public healthcare in terms of costs and life expectancy. 
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