The Like/Hate Thread

[Pinky]

the ACA pushed child-care policy first, almost immediately. by this i mean pre existing conditions are covered, co pays have been pushed back, and a host of other policy items. this has been linked to the collapse of child-only medical plans in 17 states and the withdraw of major child-only plan providers in 17 other states. there are also a host of other issues nobody in the mainsteam is currently talking about. of course, the majority of ACA is due to hit in 2013-14, safely after obama's reelection bid is over, so this is only the beginning

http://www.cato.org/publications/comment...einspiring

Watching that video, it's interesting to see how the capitalism of today is making the same mistakes as the communism of yesteryear. The problem Reagan talks about, of over-centralising. The mistake we make is in reductionism, and labelling, and over-generalisation, and identifying oneself with 'left' or 'right' or 'middle' as though complicated political and economic processes are one-dimensional. People attach their ego to particular systems and parties and forget the more basic values that inspired those systems. It's a real shame, because if people looked closer at their political beliefs they'd see that seemingly different ideas actually have a lot in common.

it's been going on for the last century. the whole "new deal" was FDR trying to enact socialist policy in the US before socialism became a dirty word here, a "new consitution" of rights that would have to be provided for you rather than the existing constitution of negative rights that prevents things from being done to you. reagan's presidency was a brief reprieve when the government froze its overall growth

i think milton friedman said it best back in the 80's. the soviets were trying to achieve what the US had done in the 50's while the US was trying to achieve what the soviets had done in the 70's. :/