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Politics : Don't Blame Me, I Voted For Kerry -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Lizzie Tudor who wrote (7336)	3/15/2004 2:29:17 PM
From: laura_bush	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 81568

Democracy - Not "The Free Market" - Will Save America's Middle Class by Thom Hartmann Published on Friday, March 12, 2004 by CommonDreams.org Here are a couple of headlines for those who haven't had the time to study both economics and history: 1. There is no such thing as a "free market." 2. The "middle class" is the creation of government intervention in the marketplace, and won't exist without it (as millions of Americans and Europeans are discovering). The conservative belief in "free markets" is a bit like the Catholic Church's insistence that the Earth was at the center of the Solar System in the Twelfth Century. It's widely believed by those in power, those who challenge it are branded heretics and ridiculed, and it is wrong. In actual fact, there is no such thing as a "free market." Markets are the creation of government. Governments provide a stable currency to make markets possible. They provide a legal infrastructure and court systems to enforce the contracts that make markets possible. They provide educated workforces through public education, and those workers show up at their places of business after traveling on public roads, rails, or airways provided by government. Businesses that use the "free market" are protected by police and fire departments provided by government, and send their communications - from phone to fax to internet - over lines that follow public rights-of-way maintained and protected by government. And, most important, the rules of the game of business are defined by government. Any sports fan can tell you that football, baseball, or hockey without rules and referees would be a mess. Similarly, business without rules won't work. Which explains why conservative economics wiped out the middle class during the period from 1880 to 1932, and why, when Reagan again began applying conservative economics, the middle class again began to vanish in America in the 1980s - a process that has dramatically picked up steam under George W. Bush. Continues @ link: commondreams.org

To: Lizzie Tudor who wrote (7336)	3/15/2004 5:16:49 PM
From: The Philosopher	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 81568

Well, incumbents generally LOSE elections vs. opposition parties winning elections. So in my view this election is a mandate against Bush, and theres plenty to run against. I'm not interested in reasons to vote against Bush. That's the SI equivalent of negative advertising, which we all say we're against. Besides, I know the problems with Bush. I'm interested in reasons why Kerry will be better than Bush for the country in the situation it will be in starting in January 2005. Will we be exchanging the problems we have under Bush for a new set of problems that is better, or worse?