On Sat, 2003-02-08 at 12:00, DvB wrote: > Ron Johnson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > > > On Sat, 2003-02-08 at 00:14, Paul Johnson wrote: > > > On Fri, Feb 07, 2003 at 11:24:41PM -0600, Ron Johnson wrote: > > [snip] > > > businesses behaving badly: Shape up or we take it. > > > > Things must be different up in Oregon, because, here, for instance, even > > low-income people will go into debt to get their kids out of the public > > schools, and a 1/2 dozen policemen in the pennitentiary, one on death > > row, for killing the woman who was to testify against him, and a > > policewoman on death row for killing someone who double-crossed her > > while she was guarding a drug ring while on duty. (Note that this is > > in a small city, not New York, w/ it's 50,000 police!) > > > > You seem to be suggesting that there's a lot of corruption in your > society (and I would agree. I live close enough to La. to know). what > makes you think privitizing things would make any difference? Why?
My point was to counteract the "businesses behaving badly: Shape up or we take it" philosophy, reminding certain members of the list that government isn't the Be All And End All. In fact, as shown by the push for school vouchers and standardized testing, the same "businesses behaving badly: Shape up or we take it." philosophy has been turned. Remember, the US as founded on "Government of the People, By the People, and For the People", and not vide versa, so when government (specifcally Civil Servants) behaves very badly, the people have a obligation to "take it back". Now, whether that means privatization or replacing the existing Civil Servants, must obviously be looked at on a case-by-case basis... > > And don't get me started about the streets! A national survey shows > > that New Orleans has the 2nd worst streets in the country. > > > > Yes, the south is known for it's urban sprawl and poor planning. Where I > live, the central city has terrible streets and crumbling infrastructure > while my tax dollars get spent to provide new roads and services in far > outlying areas that I'll probably never visit in my entire life (BTW, > N.O. streets are, IMO, better than the ones where I live). That's pretty darned bad! Maybe (a) your city's citizens haven't gotten fed up enough with the status quo, and (b) a viable reform candidate hasn't appeared yet. Here in N.O, it took some black men who were respected by the full spectrum of society, powerful enough to effect change, yet outside of the existing, corrupt power structure, to *begin* to effect change. Bizarrely(sp?) enough, that turned out to be the branch manager of the region's cable company! -- +------------------------------------------------------------+ | Ron Johnson, Jr. Home: [EMAIL PROTECTED] | | Jefferson, LA USA http://members.cox.net/ ron.l.johnson | | | | "For me and windows it became a matter of easy to start | | with, and becoming increasingly difficult to be produc- | | tive as time went on, and if something went wrong very | | difficult to fix, compared to linux's large over head | | setting up and learning the system with ease of use and | | the increase in productivity becoming larger the longer I | | use the system." | | Rohan Nicholls , The Netherlands | +------------------------------------------------------------+ -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
