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From fork-admin@xent.com  Wed Aug 21 04:02:06 2002

Ian Andrew Bell writes:
> I think that this and other articles confuse Socialism with
> Bureaucracy.  Libertarianism as implemented in North America is not
> exactly the shining pinnacle of economic efficiency.
Libertarianism is implemented in North America? Where?!?!?
> Just try starting a telephone company in the US or (even worse)
> Canada.  It can take a year or more to get the blessing of our own
> "Permit Rajs" at the FCC, PUC, and PTTs (or, in the decidedly more
> socialist leaning Canada, Industry Canada and the CRTC).
Telecom regulations are an example of implemented Libertarianism?
And for how screwed up North America's telecom industries and
regulators are, they're better than much of the rest of the
world, where it doesn't just "take a year or more" to get
started: it's impossible/illegal.
Matters of degree, matter.
> Yet, despite all of this intense regulation and paper pushing, as
> well as regulatory scrutiny by the FTC, SEC, and IRS, the
> executives of Telecom Companies have managed to bilk the investment
> community for what looks to be tens of billions of dollars.  They
> finished their routine with the a quadruple lutz -- laying off
> hundreds of thousands of workers when it all came crashing down.
>
> So.. tell me again.. how are we better off?
We can lose billions of dollars, and have hundreds of thousands of
people laid off... and after it all, our diets, health, longevity,
and freedom to pursue activities of our own choosing are still the
envy of billions of people.
Would you rather be unemployed, broke, and in possession of career
skills which merely match the local average in:
- North America, or
- India/Peru/Egypt/Philippines/etc
????
- Gordon
http://xent.com/mailman/listinfo/fork