[Shiara]

[flea]

I hope this is not a repost.

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[Tiste Simeon]

This post contains the best spam EVER.

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[Princess]

Shite bootleg time!

[Princess]

[Princess]

[Princess]

[Princess]

[Princess]

[Princess]

[Princess]

And that's all my bootlegs.

[Princess]

Oh, mustn't forget Nightmare Feddy.

[Princess]

[Princess]

[Shinrei]

worrywort, on 18 June 2012 - 03:44 AM, said:

The voting with your dollar argument doesn't sway me. People "vote" against their best interests all the time, in the booth and with their money. Nickelback have a multi-platinum album, Benny Hinn is a multi-millionaire faith healer, and Strom Thurmond existed. BTW, maybe Nickelback would still be a success without Clear Channel, but they certainly wouldn't have the advantage of total radio dominance that propelled them there through sheer repetition. The radio industry should be to the record industry what the free press is to the government, but instead it's their Pravda. Trust-busting and collusion-deterring are very much in the interest of the people, and capitalism requires that non-commercial referee. Laissez-faire capitalism ISN'T capitalism, by the nature of the beast.

As far as the USPS goes, it's dirt cheap, picks up and delivers to the vast majority of households (and in fact USPS has contracts with FedEX and UPS because they have much harder times delivering in rural areas, and they absolutely will not deliver to PO Boxes at all -- I think the last figure I read was that USPS handles ~30% of their packages at some point their delivery). I'm not suggesting it's perfect, or that it will or should last forever, but I certainly prefer it -- warts and all -- to its private counterparts, since its bottom line isn't merely profit, and I'd ultimately rather see it improved than scrapped.

A free press (and by extension media) enforced by law is a grotesque contradiction in terms. A state regulated media - how is that NOT a stage controlled media? You make it sound

Quote

Trust-busting and collusion-deterring are very much in the interest of the people, and capitalism requires that non-commercial referee.

like the government has no skin in the game of radio, like they're just this wonderful unbiased referee.


Re USPS. There is a myth that there are certain things that only the government can do, because no one in the private sector can or would want to do it. The USPS is one of those myths. The idea that a private company could not do what the USPS does is a claim that requires some proof. Currently yes, this is the case, but that is because the government has made it illegal to compete (price-wise) with the post office. The thing is, a business has to answer to customers, investors and if they do not provide the product that customers want and bring a return to investors, competition will come along and wipe it out. The government doesn't have to worry about this. There is no relationship between product and payment, so the government doesn't need to worry about getting paid. It doesn't have to worry about competition, because it has banned it. MONOPOLY is the word for that. The government doesn't need to impress investors to raise cash, all they have to do is raise taxes "for the public interest" and/or print money (which erodes the value of the money you have in your pocket).

This analogy is from Professor Murray Rothbard: If the government had a monopoly on shoe manufacture and sale, and had been providing shoes for everyone from tax revenues, then anyone who proposed that shoe production be privatized would get the same reaction as the idea of privatizing the post office.

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"How could you? You are opposed to the public, to the poor people wearing shoes! And who would supply shoes to the public if the government got out of the business? How many shows would be available in each city and town? How would the shoe firm be capitalized? What material would they use? What would be the pricing arrangements? Wouldn't regulation of the shoe industry be needed to see to it the product is sound? And who would supply the poor with shoes?"

The governments mythology is so predominant, most people really do believe that if the government has been providing a monopolized service no one else could or would want to do it, unless they charged an exhorbitant price.

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[Tiste Simeon]

This is true...

[RodeoRanch]

[frookenhauer]

[frookenhauer]

[worry]

Shin, you make it sound like "regulation" means only one thing: oppression. The state's stake in radio goes as far as regulating profanity/obscenity on the public airwaves. It's not so different from making sure CBS doesn't alternate between cartoons and hardcore porn on Saturday mornings. I dunno about you, but I consider that the good kind of regulation. On top of that, the FCC doesn't initiate investigations, private citizens do by submitting complaints. So when you get gigantic tizzies like the one about Janet Jackson's exposed breast at the Super Bowl, it's not really the state you should be eyeballing; it's good ol' rational, responsible John Q. Public causing the uproar. And back to radio, my mention of the free press was an analogy: as the actual press acts as an independent safeguard against the potential abuses by government, the radio should act as an independent safeguard against Nickelback. Not its primary booster, as designed by the music industry. What you see is a failure of private industry -- both radio AND the labels -- to have most people's best interests in mind. Meanwhile public radio offers you All Things Considered, This American Life, and streaming music from actual talents like Andrew Bird, Grimes, Gift of Gab (from Blackalicious), and Fiona Apple (who continues to improve with each record, and therefore subsequently gets less commercial radio play). Meanwhile, if the state was so all about enforcing its interests in commercial radio, then why are Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, and Sean Hannity some of the highest paid personalities on the air? Where I see the FCC going off track of its own accord is failing to oppose collusion and consolidation -- and insofar as it has failed to do so, it's been at the behest and influence of PRIVATE COMPANIES and their private money. So yah, there's mismanagement by government, but they're the small fry here -- they can be tempted by the ring, sure -- but who created the ring? That came straight from Sauron, CEO of Clear Channel.

And back to the USPS, let me make it clear that I am indifferent to any myth that says the government can do things the private sector can't. I do not start out with the premise that the government shouldn't be doing these things in the first place. I want the government to be running a ubiquitous, cheap, fair, daily, guaranteed mail service which diffuses the costs to enable diffuse benefits. I like it, I prefer it, and I don't particularly like that private industry has gotten their grubby hands on it. Though really, they only compete in terms of overnight delivery and parcels -- first class mail is the only government "monopoly" here, and for good reason. First class mail is infrastructure, necessary for and to all, and that's why it's enshrined in the Constitution in the first place. It's not about the "myth" of what private industry can't do, it's about the truth of what they won't do, and that's uphold an obligation to provide an egalitarian service to nearly everyone everywhere in the country. Shoes may be a general necessity, but they aren't infrastructure. And for the record, the titans of the private shoe industry thrive on child and slave labor -- and that seems to please consumers and investors alike plenty -- you'll have to forgive me if I trust that version of capitalism to serve humanity less than I trust the not-for-profit model.

Lastly, here's a weird-looking cat:


And a pretty awesome couple of dudes:

This post has been edited by worrywort: 24 June 2012 - 09:33 PM