RE: Can you Name a Single Successful Government Program?
August 24, 2013 at 2:05 am
(This post was last modified: August 24, 2013 at 2:21 am by Crossless2.0.)
Quote:Irrelevent. Government forced roads upon us, if our world existed without governments, the world's economic system would be completely different. Free market entities only use roads because they are there.
This may be the most stunningly stupid thing I've read all day. I'm tempted to use it as my signature. Government forced roads on us? WTF? The need for roads has been recognized by steely-eyed businessmen (think of yourself, then add reason and a knowledge of how the real world works) for millennia. Christ on a pogo stick, man, haven't you heard of ancient trade routes -- you know, roads? They were a good idea then and remain so today. Why? Because "free market entities" discovered that carrier pigeons are shitty at hauling freight.
As for the U.S. Interstate Highway system, in addition to the considerable reductions in cost to businesses sending and receiving freight, consider the revenue that has been earned by all of those businesses that you see clustered around the exits of these highways. They didn't spring up like mushrooms overnight. They were built by businesspeople who saw a golden opportunity -- an opportunity that wasn't there before the big, bad government decided to modernize the country's road system.
Really, they're there. As soon as your mom lets you drive the family car farther than around the block, take a road trip sometime and find out for yourself.
Quote:Plus the government takes approximately half the earnings of every citizen, are you saying a free way is more profitable than literally half the earnings of everyone USA?
Now that's irrelevant!
(August 23, 2013 at 11:36 pm)cato123 Wrote: Interstate highways (in the U.S.). I would love to be educated how this government program isn't considered a resounding success.
The funny thing is that of all the instances of successful government programs I could think of (many were mentioned by other members), I chose the Interstate highway system because it is so obviously business-friendly. I thought that Koolay would be bound to concede the point.
Unreasoning fundamentalists, it seems, aren't confined to churches and mosques. Some of them read (and pretend to understand) the Wall Street Journal -- at least when they're not masturbating to Ayn Rand's picture.
