Kurt Ullman wrote:
> In article ,
>  "John W. Kennedy"  wrote:
>> Josh Hill wrote:
>>> He just believes, erroneously, that private enterprise will fix
>>> everything without economic or regulatory incentives to do so.

>> Emile Cammaerts said, "The first effect of not believing in God is to 
>> believe in anything...." (He was writing about G. K.
Chesterton, and the 
>> quote is often attributed to the more famous writer.) One of those 
>> "anythings" is the pseudo-mystical belief in the power of private 
>> enterprise to fix any problem, never mind that it is both theoretically 
>> absurd and demonstrably contrary to history. (Pseudo-mystical belief in 
>> Evolution-with-a-capital-E is a similar phenomenon.)

>     So, how do you come down on the pseudo-mythical belief in the power 
> of the government to fix any problem?

There is a vast difference between desiring a government to act toward 
the end of fixing a problem, on the one hand, and assuming some vague 
"spirit of free enterprise" will magically fix any problem without even 
intending to, on the other. (It is as though the right wing somehow 
imagines, not only that Hari Seldon is real, but that he has worked out 
all the equations and given his blessing to the capitalist side.)

If free enterprise had the magical powers frequently ascribed to it, we 
would all be running computers with decent operating systems, most 
prime-time television would at least approach the quality of "Babylon 
5", and an engineering degree would be a strong predictor of a better 
income than an MBA.

-- 
John W. Kennedy
"I want everybody to be smart. As smart as they can be. A world of 
ignorant people is too dangerous to live in."
   -- Garson Kanin. "Born Yesterday"
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