To all you free-marketeers, provide empirical evidence for why the free-market is so flawless or stfu. For the moment you are only talking about a castle in the sky, and there is plenty of case examples (especially in the 1800s) that explain why government intervention is desired. Second, there is no evidence that suggests perfect competition continues, rather it suggests that the market is dominated by one or few firms. And those firms have no incentive to play fairly or set the price at fair-market value. Whether such dominating firms collapse is irrelevant, the fact is that experience suggests "perfect competition" is short-lived.

the nature of laissez fair free market capitalism is that big corporations emerge to dominate and eventually it hurts the consumer.

It seems to me that some people here wouldn't quite mind living in some grotesque parody of a Charles Dicken's novel. I guess the good old days where children had to sweep chimneys without protection or legal recourse if injured while you yourself could barely meet your own caloric requirements with a full day's wage strikes their fancy.

Government regulation has it's place because markets sometimes fail despite what some pie in the sky market fundamentalist academics might say. Ask some of the current greatest capitalists themselves like Warren Buffett, George Soros and Bill Gates or someone like Volcker - people who actually have to contend with -actual- markets rather than just bs about them.

Laissez faire healthcare what a hoot. The numbers speak for themselves (U.S healthcare costs p.p compared to just about everyone else's).

>>It seems to me that some people here wouldn't quite mind living in some grotesque parody of a Charles Dicken's novel. I guess the good old days where children had to sweep chimneys without protection or legal recourse if injured while you yourself could barely meet your own caloric requirements with a full day's wage strikes their fancy.

Government regulation has it's place because markets sometimes fail despite what some pie in the sky market fundamentalist academics might say. Ask some of the current greatest capitalists themselves like Warren Buffett, George Soros and Bill Gates or someone like Volcker - people who actually have to contend with -actual- markets rather than just bs about them.

Laissez faire healthcare what a hoot. The numbers speak for themselves (U.S healthcare costs p.p compared to just about everyone else's).

Last edited by tavius (16-Nov-2009 13:52:06)<<

This after I post a story of a plumber who can't get his arm straightened by NHS.

Did you know you can have your tattoos removed on the NHS?
That can end, which should free up some cash.
What?
Ok... How about a crossing-out service?

Sorry it's been so long, I've been busy with psych stuff.

> Blind Guardian wrote:

>

your lack of cash would have led to long-term inpatient care? I don't think so

we don't have any unemployable scum in this country

What lies did I tell, badly or otherwise?

Maybe there's a state that locks people up instead of just letting them wander off under a bridge somewhere, I can't imagine what it is.  Maybe Hawaii.   They USED to lock em up and throw away the key, but there was a national movement for the rights of the mentally ill and substance abusers.  Coincidentally we had a boom in the number of homeless vagrants.