Should the US move towards socialism?

[Robert_S]

Nonsense. There are perfectly competent Government workers, they just never get anywhere.

I'm sure it's possible...

[Ian]

Ian the USSR was as much a socialist country as my left bollock.

Yeah, but nevertheless some of the worst environmental disasters ever happened there. And it wasn't because private industry was ignored by Moscow and left unregulated to do whatever it liked.

[Eriku]

It will require some modifications to corporate law, and then you still have the threat of capital flight... I wonder if it's too late to do so without having a radical shift in the economic landscape...

A large publicly traded corporation has a legal responsibility to put profit to the corporation above all other concerns. In fact a shareholder can sue a corporation for not doing so. With that in mind a typical corporation will use what's called a "cost/benefit analysis" to make almost all decisions.

http://secret-of-life.org/externalities ... -liability

[Pensioner]

Ian the USSR was as much a socialist country as my left bollock.

Yeah, but nevertheless some of the worst environmental disasters ever happened there. And it wasn't because private industry was ignored by Moscow and left unregulated to do whatever it liked.

True mate but we in the UK have a Time bomb that's claimed hundreds of lives,if not thousands, Asbestos, and workers are still dying from that. I could think of many more.

[Robert_S]

About the BP spill, from all what I've heard, it was the pursuit of profits that led to the shoddy job on that well. I'm entertaining the idea that we might be better off by nationalising our petroleum industry.

Nationalizing it??? Fugheddaboutit. That'll never happen, not here anyway. Regulating it up to safe levels ought to do it. I'm hopeful that will happen.

Ownership really isn't relevant. Whether it's a private company or the government who owns the well, what matters is adequate regulation. Some of the worst environmental disasters in history happened in socialist countries (USSR, the early PRC) whose governments owned their own industries and whose pursuit of production mattered more to them than environmental concerns.

In the USSR and PRC, there wasn't much in the way of relevant voting going on.

[Trolldor]

Regulation. Regulation. Regulation.

[Trolldor]

Except for the internet.

The Government can get the fuck away from my internet.

[Xamonas Chegwé]

Nationalise energy, healthcare and transport. Put competent people in charge.

Competent people meaning the government? Some might argue that's a contradiction in terms...

I wouldn't, really, but some would.

The fact that you think anyone employed by the guvmint might actually read any small-print speaks volumes!

[Xamonas Chegwé]

The US 'moving towards' socialism would involve what? One in twenty congressmen wearing red ties on alternate Wednesdays?

[Robert_S]

Except for the internet.

The Government can get the fuck away from my internet.

The US government paid for the research that developed the internet. It did so because it seemed like a good idea to facilitate communication between universities and make research widely available.

What happens when some telecommunications company decides that they want to give preferential treatment to traffic from their large corporate clients and let the bits from an independent site like this slow to a crawl.

[Trolldor]

They tried that already. The internet fought back.