What is Digg?551 Comments
- galt1776, on 12/16/2008, -11/+224How could he sacrifice principles he never had?
- Damoclez, on 12/16/2008, -15/+187'Sacrificed free market principles?' If the pols would have allowed the free market (with some regulation) to be in place, then we wouldn't be where we are right now.
If you'll remember, there have been warnings for about 10-12 years now, saying that trying to prevent small market and economy corrections because they were politically unpopular, would end up in a huge correction with pain for everybody down the road.
I think we are Down the Road. - kemp34, on 12/17/2008, -7/+151Debt-based fiat currency forced monopolies are not free market. Corporate cronyism is not free market. Keynesian massive deficit spending is not free market. "Helping the economy" by going to war (I think I am going to vomit) is not free market. How does this man still try to speak with a straight face in the rare moments he is not smirking or whining?
- inactive, on 12/16/2008, -26/+125No, Bush has sacraficed countless Iraqi civillians and 4209 American soldiers.
The fed, the treasury and congress sacraficed the free market. - drachemorder, on 12/17/2008, -6/+98If you're willing to sacrifice your principles to "save the economy", that means you never really believed in those principles to begin with --- or else you would be relying on them to save you rather than sacrificing them.
- NSResponder, on 12/16/2008, -9/+95How can he abandon something he never supported in the first place?
The federal register grew just as fast under the Bush administration as any regime before it.
-jcr - CoolHandLuke70, on 12/16/2008, -11/+89What an ass.
- inactive, on 12/17/2008, -5/+74Someone hand me a shoe, preferably a stiletto.
- FullTimer, on 12/17/2008, -11/+47There is so much BS spread on both sides of this issue.
The US has not had a free market since Roosevelt. The government has placed itself into the economy in an attempt to stabilize it and control the people. The free market is no magic solution. The free market resulted in monopolies, child labor and locked factory doors. The government is no magic solution either but we're up to our necks in it. 60% of people rely on the government for their income. If free market capitalists want to fix things, they are going to have to figure out how to help distribute the wealth without removing people's freedom. If they don't tackle this, conservativism is dead.
Suggest everyone watch the 5 part video: Commanding Heights The Battle for the World Economy - inactive, on 12/17/2008, -13/+46I'm sorry but the man has lost his ***** mind. He had to sacrifice free market principles to save the economy from collapse. Are you kidding me? His legacy is going to be that he is the father of socialism in America. This is what a "Christian Right" president gives us? If elections continue, which under socialism, is an oxymoron, a "Christian Right" person will never get close to the Whitehouse again. He needs to shut the hell up before he makes things worse, if that's possible.
- badqat, on 12/17/2008, -8/+41Ya know...I've said for 8 years that Bush isn't a conservative. He's far from it...and has gotten further and further away from it during his two terms.
Granted, unless it's pure fiscal conservatism, I'm not much of a conservative myself (a little too libertarian for some folks, I think)...but fiscal conservatism ought to be the building block upon which we are governed, and as a society we function.
I won't shed a tear when he leaves office. - inactive, on 12/17/2008, -5/+37Reminds of the the Vietnam quote, "It was necessary to destroy the village in order to save it."
- Damoclez, on 12/17/2008, -1/+26Those familiar with Arabs and their culture, realize that this is an insult of the highest magnitude. To us, it's just a size 10 shoe, to the Arabs, it shows that he is someone to respect less, if at all.
Cultural misconceptions are one of the American leaders' Achilles heel, if you'll allow the mixed metaphor. - iancgi, on 12/17/2008, -5/+30It never was a free market. They are just letting the general ignorant public in on the secret.
Its called conditioning, slow and steady the frog cooks as the temperature raises. - inactive, on 12/17/2008, -5/+28That stupid liberal Bush!
- ThinkOutTheBox, on 12/17/2008, -7/+29Well, *****.......
So what happens now? I think its apparent that him or his advisers have no clue what they hell they are doing. I knew the ***** was a liberal the whole time. This takes him away from RINO status and he is now a LIEBN (Liberal In Everything But Name). - 7papa7, on 12/17/2008, -5/+24I have serious doubts if he is a Christian based on his actions and he is definitely NOT from the right. He has no concept of what conservatism is or he would never do what he has done. If he were part of the Christian right the country would be in a far far better place now than we are. What he is doing is implementing the far left agenda of big government, conservatism is small government and the list of differences go on ad nauseum. Don't put this RINO president as part of the right, he is not. He is perpetuating far left ideology. He is not now or has he ever been a conservative. He is a left wing one worlder with no concept at all what conservatism is.
- Damoclez, on 12/17/2008, -4/+23@getter1 - If you don't understand why a company makes something that doesn't sell, then you don't understand the basics of a free market. The reason people don't buy it is because they are 'free to buy what they want,' and not 'free to buy what they want, as long as it is what we, the government tells them is available.'
As for first point - a company will get the cheapest labour possible, to maximize profit, although that is the theory. In practice, many very successful companies are not owned by international groups, and are very 'local' in nature - hire local and are as concerned about quality and providing a good quality product for people, while making a profit to live by.
There are many businesses that still practice this Good Neighbor policy in their business, and if that's what you want, buy from them and not others who are less scrupulous. - wunksta, on 12/17/2008, -3/+21sacrifice the free market to save the free market?
hmm that sounds familiar, oh yeah
sacrifice your rights to protect your rights - Farth, on 12/17/2008, -14/+31Amazing that conservatives can still blame Obama for Bush's failed economic policies.
- TheInformer, on 12/17/2008, -5/+22"That is the dumbest thing I have ever heard in my life. We are going to implement socialism to save free market principles. That borders on absolutes stupidity and proves he doesn't have a clue."
So, Obama implementing more of the same on a grander scale would be smart, yes? - kemp34, on 12/17/2008, -2/+19If you really look into the Nolan Chart two dimensional political spectrum, Bush is generally a "Statist/Authoritarian", basically the worst of all worlds.
http://www.ponderthis.net/2008/11/03/election-2008 ... - inactive, on 12/17/2008, -6/+23I'll say it again. Hearing Bush yammer about his alleged "free market principles" is just like hearing a $5 whore talk about chastity.
- inactive, on 12/17/2008, -14/+31The ironic thing is...is that only a truly free market can save this economy once and for all.
- oldhick, on 12/17/2008, -9/+26Wow... I'm not sure that comment is even worth responding too! First we're not a free market economy and never have been. Second, corporations are solely profit based. That is why they exist. Free markets can regulate themselves and sustain themselves.
You need to study a LOT more. Take an econ 101 class at least. - inactive, on 12/17/2008, -3/+19"fiscal conservatism ought to be the building block upon which we are governed"
If I could digg you 1000 times, I would. - algaeturd, on 12/17/2008, -4/+20And look how well the economy has been 'saved' as a result.
Great. Horrible president. Has failed on foreign policy, education, drugs, terrorism, ECONOMY. Has he succeeded at ANYTHING? Seriously. And 'not being attacked' again is NOT something you 'succeed' at.
To my knowledge, there is no evidence that Bush actually thwarted any potential attacks after blatantly failing to stop the 9/11 attacks. - Rapter09, on 12/17/2008, -4/+20We don't really have to bring Christianity into this, really. He's a big enough of a doofus to be made fun of all on his own. To paraphrase Ghandi; I like your Christ, but not your Christians.
- joe8pack, on 12/17/2008, -4/+20Anybody got a shoe handy? Maybe my aim is better.
- UnrealMiniMe, on 12/17/2008, -2/+18The idea that Pareto efficiency can be improved by government intervention rests upon the absurd idea that government bureaucrats are somehow exempt from the laws of human nature that otherwise impede perfectly rational behavior. ;-) Aside from flat-out corruption, imperfect information is actually one of the biggest reasons why almost all arbitrary government intervention backfires. Plus, free market efficiency requires people to be merely instrumentally rational (which every person has a natural tendency towards, though some are obviously smarter or more informed than others), but government efficiency requires people to be epistemically rational, which often conflicts with the average person's stronger and more natural inclination towards instrumental rationality (particularly the kind of people that are attracted to positions of power over others). Besides, on principle alone, government intervention in a free market economy is almost always necessarily a violation of human beings' natural property rights, and it's often a violation of the natural right to liberty as well (such as legal tender laws or other laws that infringe upon freedom of voluntary contract).
- drshorty, on 12/17/2008, -4/+19He didn't say free markets caused monopolies, he said they resulted in them. A free market wouldn't prevent them, so how are you to say that a free market wouldn't do that?
- o0joshua0o, on 12/17/2008, -2/+17He's such a bad president the Republicans are trying to disown him.
- UnrealMiniMe, on 12/17/2008, -4/+19getter1, you need to learn the difference between the free market and what we have now, which is more like corporate fascism. Our market is nowhere near "free" because of government intervention, including taxation, inflationary fiat money, red tape and regulations, and corporate welfare/favoritism (and really, protecting big companies from smaller competition is what almost all regulation amounts to anyway, with a few exceptions, the most notable exceptions being those "regulations" that fall more into the category of common "don't kill your neighbor" law, such as the criminalization of fraud).
I have trouble not becoming the guy from the "Duty Calls" cartoon from xkcd, but this isn't really the place for me to argue the case for the free market. However, consider this: Your very mention of corporations indicates that you're attacking something that is entirely different from the free market...because in a free market, there would be no such thing as corporations as we know them today. The corporation is a government creation! By [unconstitutionally, by the way] giving personhood status to joint stock companies, the government is, among other things, unjustly protecting those companies' shareholders from the liability that follows their stake in the company...at the expense of everyone else. - davidmesaaz, on 12/17/2008, -5/+20It should be titled Bush sacrificed free market principles to destroy the economy.
- badqat, on 12/17/2008, -0/+14It really isn't a popularity contest once you get in office. It might be when you're RUNNING for office, but once you have it, you can't be wondering if you're going to make someone upset.
You need to be pragmatic, and make the best decisions and policies you can to benefit the nation and all her people. And he has made some terrible ones. - minoss, on 12/17/2008, -2/+15You mean regulation like the kind we've had for years? We have an entire government department dedicated solely to regulating the 2 largest, government created companies that provide mortgages. Yet they still failed. No, what we need is less government in the market. The government created this mess. Keeping interest rates low, coercing banks to loan to more and more buyers, etc is what created this mess. The market reaction of sub prime and other risky loan types was a perfectly normal response to the amount of money the government was pumping into housing.
You assume government can spot these market inefficiencies in the market better than the people who actively compete in the market. Good luck with that. - JoeMerchant, on 12/17/2008, -3/+16No reason you can't have elections in socialism - see: Scandanavia.
- Ymeg, on 12/17/2008, -3/+16Bush: I shot the economy in the heart to save it...
- DukeLeto2, on 12/17/2008, -3/+15Free Market. You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.
(also could substitute "Save") - joe8pack, on 12/17/2008, -4/+16Are you lucid? You do realize giving taxpayer money to bail out banks is socialism, perhaps even fascism, if you think Obama can screw this country up any worse than Bush already has, you sir are an optimist.
- Elsewhere42, on 12/17/2008, -3/+15I guess this is kind of like the way he had to sacrifice democratic principals and freedom in order to save freedom from the terrorists.
- mikbunn, on 12/17/2008, -3/+15Have you not been paying attention? He used powers he never had; I guess the door swings both ways.
- inactive, on 12/17/2008, -2/+14At least he admits eliminating market freedom, and doesn't try to pretend that restriction = freedom, like he does in every other instance.
- brbubba, on 12/17/2008, -4/+15Good comment. Republicans telling the US population that they actually believe in and practice free market economics was the biggest farce ever played on the public. Corporatism does not equal a free market economy you bloody idiots!
- AlbinoRaven, on 12/17/2008, -3/+14IOW.
In order to save the patient's leg I cut off it's head. - Memnochxx, on 12/17/2008, -5/+16Hey you're right, now who put Saddam in power?
- sousademiami, on 12/17/2008, -5/+16Do you know anything about history?
- Rioracer916, on 12/17/2008, -4/+15Before all the government intervention of the 20's and 30's that tended to be the case.
- TheInformer, on 12/17/2008, -0/+10Which means there is little to no chance of it happening during (at least) the next two years.
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