The United States does not have a free market system. There are many reasons for this. Regulations that exist today regarding labor, banking, investments, and trade have all been set in place to try and fix problems within the system.
Abuses during the industrial revolution led to the formation of labor unions and the development of labor laws. The Great Depression led to the development of banking and investment protection laws as well as social insurance systems such as unemployment and social security. Of course there have been regulations in the reverse direction that have hurt the country, but over all most regulation is done in order to protect the average citizen and their quality of life.
Regulation is not socialism (not that socialism is always a bad thing). Regulation insures that things don’t get totally out of control. The current financial crisis was caused by a lack of regulation in lending and investment. Businesses that usually call for a lack of regulation and this so called “small government” idea, are now the ones asking for help from the government. It’s been proven that businesses and market systems do not regulate themselves. They often do not behave ethically, how can they when the system is geared to the goal of increasing profit and not ensuring that the system remain sustainable and healthy? And now, when they are having trouble they are demanding help from the government, in turn treating it like the “big involved system” they initially fought against. Doesn’t anyone realize the problem with this?
If there were regulations in place in the beginning we would not be dealing with this crisis now. As an American citizen and taxpayer I am not okay with handing over 700 billion dollars to people that have proven themselves already to be financially irresponsible. Even more so considering that we are still funneling money and resources into a war that cannot be won.
I would rather my money go to make sure that hungry kids can eat food, families are able to get housing, fuel alternatives are researched, and the environment is kept healthy, and that maybe I could finally see a doctor and take care of my medical needs without fear of going bankrupt.
John McCain’s plan seems to be to lower everyone’s taxes while continuing to waste money in Iraq and that will somehow insure that everyone still has jobs, can feed their families, and make gas prices go down.
Give me a break. I used to respect McCain. He’s officially lost his mind. He just wants to win and he’s willing to use the ideals of socially conservative people in order to do so. He doesn’t even look like he could handle the pressure of the presidency for even one day which means if he kicks the bucket we will be stuck with Sarah Palin. I can tell you all right now that if that happens I am gonna be on the first flight out of this place. No joke.
