John, I completely agree with your first point that corporate welfare should be stopped. However, I have to disagree with you on your second point. Labor laws and government-mandated worker safety standards have had a crippling effect on many small-to-medium sized companies. Many of these regulations began as corporate-union concessions, or industry-standard committees. By the government stepping in and enacting regulations, both labor unions and corporate negotiators have lost much of their bargaining powers and industry participants have less and less say in how their industries should be operated.
Also, while I agree you that market forces do not always choose the path that is best for everyone, consumer choice can be a powerful balancing weapons to keep those market forces on the right path. As a side note, both Ford and Chrysler began offering seat-belts in 1956 as a result of pressure from several industry groups, including the SAE and AMA. This was 5 years prior to the first seat-belt law (WI & NY in 1961). And I know my family (and I'll bet your's too) didn't wear the seat belts in our cars until the late 1980's. Does this prove how ineffectual government safety regulations can be? You be the judge. Thanks, Earl Kinsley [EMAIL PROTECTED] ---------------------------------- "That government is best which governs least." -- Thomas Paine ---------------------------------- Check out my latest blogs at http://KinsleyForPrez08.blogspot.com ----- Original Message ----- From: "John E Hayes" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <Biofuel@sustainablelists.org> Sent: Monday, October 17, 2005 9:29 AM Subject: Re: [Biofuel] oil price gouging poll > [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > Government >> meddling in a free-market economy is never a good thing. > > a) Well, removing the billions in corporate welfare the petroleum > industry gets from the government might be a good place to start. Why > ExxonMobil needs my tax dollars to fund R&D when they had $25 billion > dollars in profits last year, I don't really know. > > b) I disagree with your contention that the the government doesn't have > a place in the market. > > First of all, laize-fair capitalism was rejected by the American people > over a hundred years ago. We have labor laws and worker safety standards > for a reason - a pure free market sucks for almost everybody except > those at the very top/ > > Second, market forces will *not* always result in choices that are best > for society as a whole. Without governmental regulations, we'd still be > driving seatbelt-less, no-crumple zone cars powered with leaded gasoline. > > Free market ideologues always seem to ignore this little detail. _______________________________________________ Biofuel mailing list Biofuel@sustainablelists.org http://sustainablelists.org/mailman/listinfo/biofuel_sustainablelists.org Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Search the combined Biofuel and Biofuels-biz list archives (50,000 messages): http://www.mail-archive.com/biofuel@sustainablelists.org/