- 20 Mar 2011 06:14
#13659765
I'm going to try and give you as straight an answer as possible.
I alone can't pay for mental health professionals for my county. I make a respectable living, but I simply can't afford to pay for the salaries and other expenses of those who help keep kids off the street, preventing crime, those who help women who have been raped, those who help keep dangerous people off the street. Unfortunately, I'm one of only a few people in my city who would likely be willing to help pay for mental health professionals, and there's no way we'd have enough money. The result would be disastrous. People don't know how many at-risk kids there are out there. People don't know how often women are the victims of domestic abuse or rape and require counseling services. People have no concept of what the county's mental health services do for us, collectively. And if the services were to be shut down tomorrow, there's simply no way a private incarnation could possibly function because despite the fact there's a problem, people are too selfish and short-sighted to understand that because this is a problem that affects all of us, it thus is fair for us all to share a tiny individual cost to prevent.
This exact same thing can be expanded to any one of hundreds if not thousands of services provided by government. The idea that somehow the market will magically solve problems that crop up is not simply demonstrably false, it's an assertion made in order to undermine equality and democracy in favor of corporate oligarchy. I'm guessing you've never lived under an oligarchical system, because if you had, you'd understand that by collectively sharing responsibility, we maintain an all-important balance of power between the strongest government and private powers, and the collective people.
Can you rewrite this, please? What you're asking isn't just vague, I'm not even sure I understand the question. Are you saying that absolutely everything should be privatized?
I need you to explain to me, in detail, the process by which one tests food for e.coli. I'm willing to bet that, like 99.99999% of people, you lack that particular skill. I'm well educated in science and I don't know how to do it.
Other than to freeze it.
You just haven't realized yet just how much you owe collectivism. Without collectivism: no roads, no phones, no internet, no CDC, no workers rights, etc. The pooling of resources is the only way to tackle the truly massive social, economic and environmental challenges that we absolutely, 100% cannot deal with as individuals. Government is how we accomplish that which the market has repeatedly failed in, like clean air and water, safe workplaces and basic economic security.
Capitalist_Eagle wrote:If YOU support a particular program, why can't YOU pay for it and leave everyone else alone?
I'm going to try and give you as straight an answer as possible.
I alone can't pay for mental health professionals for my county. I make a respectable living, but I simply can't afford to pay for the salaries and other expenses of those who help keep kids off the street, preventing crime, those who help women who have been raped, those who help keep dangerous people off the street. Unfortunately, I'm one of only a few people in my city who would likely be willing to help pay for mental health professionals, and there's no way we'd have enough money. The result would be disastrous. People don't know how many at-risk kids there are out there. People don't know how often women are the victims of domestic abuse or rape and require counseling services. People have no concept of what the county's mental health services do for us, collectively. And if the services were to be shut down tomorrow, there's simply no way a private incarnation could possibly function because despite the fact there's a problem, people are too selfish and short-sighted to understand that because this is a problem that affects all of us, it thus is fair for us all to share a tiny individual cost to prevent.
This exact same thing can be expanded to any one of hundreds if not thousands of services provided by government. The idea that somehow the market will magically solve problems that crop up is not simply demonstrably false, it's an assertion made in order to undermine equality and democracy in favor of corporate oligarchy. I'm guessing you've never lived under an oligarchical system, because if you had, you'd understand that by collectively sharing responsibility, we maintain an all-important balance of power between the strongest government and private powers, and the collective people.
Capitalist_Eagle wrote:If YOU don't believe a company should be in for profits, why don't YOU start your own non-profit and leave everyone else alone?
Can you rewrite this, please? What you're asking isn't just vague, I'm not even sure I understand the question. Are you saying that absolutely everything should be privatized?
Capitalist_Eagle wrote:If YOU don't believe a certain food is healthy, why don't YOU not eat it and leave everyone else alone?
I need you to explain to me, in detail, the process by which one tests food for e.coli. I'm willing to bet that, like 99.99999% of people, you lack that particular skill. I'm well educated in science and I don't know how to do it.
Other than to freeze it.
Capitalist_Eagle wrote:I have no problem with anyone supporting a cause, getting together with friends and associates, financing it, and working for it, but I do have a problem when you use other peoples' money to do it.
You just haven't realized yet just how much you owe collectivism. Without collectivism: no roads, no phones, no internet, no CDC, no workers rights, etc. The pooling of resources is the only way to tackle the truly massive social, economic and environmental challenges that we absolutely, 100% cannot deal with as individuals. Government is how we accomplish that which the market has repeatedly failed in, like clean air and water, safe workplaces and basic economic security.
"Common hatred unites the most heterogeneous elements. To share a common hatred, with an enemy even, is to infect him with a feeling of kinship, and thus sap his powers of resistance.." - Eric Hoffer, The True Believer