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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: tejek who wrote (528656)	11/13/2009 2:56:28 PM
From: TimF	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1575427

Anheuser-Busch, which had survived Prohibition and the micro-brew craze, was sold to a Belgian brewer. No betrayal involved here, just the search for extra efficiency and productivity. If they can meet the demand with fewer employees they should do so. In the long run the only way to raise living standards significantly is by improving productivity, reduce the number of employees required to produce one thing, and free them up for something else (or if demand increases you could do more with the same, rather than the same with less, but beer demand can only increase so far). Right now, a time when only 20 percent of Americans call themselves Republicans and Democrats are shrinking as well, the independents are disgusted with both parties. I agree there is good reason for this. Neither party seems to care about controlling spending when they have the White House and congress. Neither party consistently cares about the other, non-spending intrusions of big government, or seems to pay more than lip service to controlling pork and other special benefits to favorite constituencies. The continuous drip of perceived unfairness continues. One day it’s news that Goldman Sachs seems to have stepped ahead of the line of those waiting to receive H1N1 vaccines, prompting questions about why investment bankers were getting doses rather than children or pregnant women. Another example of government playing political favorites, when dealing with a shortage which its own policies are primarily responsible for. Another day brings a report that the top banks are raising credit card interest rates – some as high as 29 percent, which would shame a Mob extortionist 29 percent would hardly shame a loan shark (I assume that's what he meant rather than extortionist, which would imply taking money by threat, not loaning it out at high interest rates), who might charge more than that per month or even in some cases per week. 29% could in fact be a reasonable rate given how much of a credit risk some borrowers are. Not that I'm exactly happy with all of their practices, such as increasing interest rates without any default, late payments, or increase in general market rates, hit on the borrowers credit rating, or other cause, but 29% interest rates to risky borrowers is hardly a betrayal. If health care reform gives people a choice Its much more likely to reduce choice. Its 2000 pages of "shall", "must" ect. Its not about choice but about control. If the recovery helps millions of people who don’t have a well-staffed lobby in Washington, it too will be a plus. Recoveries generally do, I'm optimistic enough to think that even with Obama's and Pelosi's policies the recovery from this recession will be no exception.