Newsgroups: soc.culture.african.american
Subject: Re: Spike Lee
From: ljones@andrew.ATL.GE.COM (LeRoy E Jones)
Date: 3 Nov 1992 18:38:26 GMT
Organization: GE Aerospace, Advanced Technology Labs
NNTP-Posting-Host: andy.atl.ge.com

In article <aowJTB1w163w@peewee> peewee@infoserv.com (Philip Stromer) writes:
>In article <Bx0ntr.G3q@access.digex.com>, William Brown writes: 

>>You act as if you feel the status of the beer company is more important
>>than the effect of their product on the community.  I would disagree.
>
>We don't disagree.  I couldn't care less about the beer companies.  I
>don't drink, smoke, or take drugs.  None of 'em get my business.  But
>I don't oppose their buying commercial time either.  It's my choice
>to drink or not to, to smoke or not to, or to gamble or not to.  As
>an adult, I'm charged with making these choices for myself.

Yeah, but the free will argument is weak in some situations. It is naive
to think that people's free will isn't influenced by outside forces, such
as advertising, and equally as naive to think companies don't exploit the
blight of the underclass when they are selling "good time" products like
alchohol. It's simple...they ask, 'who is in the greatest need of a good
time?' and they hit that group hard. It's even better if my product 
perpetuates the cycle of despair so they need my "good time" product even
more.


>>Public schools, Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, Transportation,
>>Communications, etc. "Bullshit causes"?  It is TRULY amazing how much
>>we take for granted...
>
>Private schools could cut out much of the red tape, thereby educating
>our children better.  Hire more teachers per student and less 
>administrators.

But what about people who can't afford it? People who are locked out due
to overcrowding? Are private schools going to be made to guarentee acceptance
of any and all students, without regard to ability to pay, social status,
aptitude, race, location, etc.? Are they going to bus kids who have no way
to get to these schools? Sounds like public education to me.


>Medicaid, Social Security?  Over 50% of every dollar poured into
>these things goes to administration costs.  If each citizen could
>set up his own private retirement plan, ALL the money could go where
>it's supposed to go.  And then the government couldn't dick around
>with the Social Security money like they're doing now.  They take
>it out and use it to pay the national debt and other incongruous
>things.

If they didn't exist, these other options would become saturated too,
and require the same army of people to maintain. Plus, people aren't
as disciplined as that, and we'd have a lot of people of living out on
the street, and ill with no way to pay. Plus, social security doesn't
just go to the elderly. When my father died, my mom had 2 kids to raise
and no job. Social security and my father's benefits kept us off welfare.
It provided security.


>Transportation and communications are much better handled by private
>industry than by government.  Government has no opposition, therefore
>they get fat and lazy.  With no economic incentive to "deliver the
>goods", they don't.  Private companies have to succeed or fail.  Only
>the strong survive, which benefits all of us.

Yeah, better handled until they decide to close down due to lack of profits,
or start ignoring the customers because they have monopolies. Government
regulation is needed in some industries. Oh yeah, the strong surviving isn't
good for everyone...it's only good for the ones the strong decide to protect.


>Talk about taking things for granted!  We take for granted that Uncle
>Sam will do so much for us, when we all know that it's IMPOSSIBLE.

But it's better than the alternative, given that people are on an uneven 
playing field. 


>--Philip Stromer (peewee@infoserv.com)

	-- Lee (ljones@atl.ge.com)