Retired Observer's Open Salon Blog

Freedom for Conservatives

Sat, 14 Aug 2010 13:08:14 -0400

I have grown weary of all the comments from conservatives about freedom. I’m not sure what conservatives mean by freedom but some examples of where they (some not all) are not for freedoms are:

Freedom for two consenting adults to determine appropriate sexual activity.
Freedom to decide when and if to have a baby.
Freedom to live in a society that controls abusive activity by corporations/businesses.
A freedom of religion definition that includes freedom from religion.

I am sure there are more examples but what does that leave us as examples of freedom that conservatives seek:

Economic freedoms to act in any manner with the philosophy of buyer beware.
Freedom to impose their religious ideals on any and all.
Freedom to use private and public property to their economic benefit without regard to the impact on others.

Private Companies/Corp. Not Always Efficient

Fri, 10 Apr 2009 14:04:37 -0400

I have noted that several conservatives have been beating the drum about government being generally worthless and that only private companies/corporations can do anything efficiently. I think this based on a faulty assumption that free market forces create efficient organizations. My experience working in private industry has been the opposite. Industries have just as many screw-ups as government entities and go on for a long time in some cases because of the lack of scrutiny. People working in companies know that their continuing employment is often dependent on not being too critical of what is going on. People whether in government or private industry have the same destructive impulses regarding the desires to get rich, create empires for themselves, being overly motivated by the desire to control others etc. I remember one example where chemical companies were discharging enormous amounts of methylene chloride into the atmosphere. After being challenged by the EPA, the industry groups realized that recovering the methylene chloride would rapidly pay for the costs of the equipment and would reduce their costs. Companies are always under pressure to increase profit. This has led in many cases to fraudulent practices that cost way more money that they saved (recent financial mess, auto company safety problems, toxicology lab fraud, etc.) Companies need the threat of oversight to save themselves from their own problems. The trick is to focus on real problems and not get entangled with trivial problems. Another problem is in areas where competition either does not exist or does not work as expected. Take health care, there may be multiple doctors/hospitals that provide a service but it is virtually impossible to get helpful information on relative costs. There is also the problem that in an emergency it is not practical for an individual to make a choice in a way that encourages competition. One might argue that insurance companies reduce costs by negotiating fees but the point would be that competition is working for the insurance company but not the individual. European schemes where health care institutions are paid for health outcomes is one way to make the system more efficient for the individual.

Overpopulation

Wed, 11 Mar 2009 11:03:09 -0400

I just finished reading an article on Alternet entitled:

Are We Breeding Ourselves to Extinction?

By Chris Hedges, Truthdig. Posted March 11, 2009.

http://www.alternet.org/environment/130843/are_we_breeding_ourselves_to_extinction/

The author makes the point that working on the climate crisis is futile without doing more to limit population. It seems like we should be able to admit that we have widely succeeded as a species as need to do more to ensure long-term viability both of humans and our natural wilderness. Who wants to live in a world that is overpopulated with humans without the wonder of nature. This is an area where I feel that religions are causing problems by being overly concerned about what women do to control their reproductive lives and doing too little to preserve our planet. While I do not think that we need to be as draconian as China, there needs to by policies that discourage large families for those that want children and discouraging people who are on the fence from having children. Some European countries already have zero population growth and we should examine what policies have encouraged that to occur.

Reading "Your Inner Fish"

Fri, 20 Feb 2009 13:02:10 -0500

I just finished reading the book "Your Inner Fish: A Journey into the 3.5-Billion-Year History of the Human Body." I really liked this book for it's insights into how humans evolved. The book provides examples of how we carry the history of evolution within our own bodies.

One example is the phenomenon of hiccups. Hiccups are triggered by electric signals generated in the brain stem. Amphibian brain stems emit similar signals, which control the regular motion of their gills. Our brain stems, inherited from amphibian ancestors, still spurt out odd signals producing hiccups that are essentially the same phenomenon as gill breathing.

Vision vs. Comprimize

Tue, 10 Feb 2009 12:02:35 -0500

The discussion about the stimulus bill reminds me a lot of work experiences designing standard operating procedures or in writing documents. Procedures/documents designed by a committee often seemed unwieldy at the end with no one satisfied with the outcome. This is much like the stimulus bill. In contrast, procedures /cocuments designed by someone with the right set of skills to understand the issues and also be willing to listen to criticism often seemed to make more sense and have a better balance. I think a critical difference is in a consistent vision of what needs to be accomplished. A better stimulus bill would have stayed with the original vision of a jobs creation vehicle without throwing in a lot of ideas from people who did not want the stimulus bill in the first place.