When you read Nancy Turner’s viewpoint, you would think the name of Adam Smith’s book was, “The Wealth of the Wealthy.” Though Smith makes many points, the point of competition isn’t so that the rich can get richer but so the common consumer can have the best price via market competition. Does anyone think that’s what health insurers provide? Insurers don’t compete for your dollars; what little competition exists is to see who can provide employers with the cheapest cost by redirecting costs back to the employees through higher premiums and higher deductibles.
Additionally, the idea that “if only government would leave businesses alone competition would generate the best price” is laughable. Businesses don’t compete because they want to but because they have to. Corporations do everything in their power not to compete, including spending millions lobbying Congress to get the best deals possible. And as for government interference, the modern corporation, particularly with its limited liability, couldn’t exist without the government.
Then there’s the red herring about discouraging risk-taking as if large corporations were entrepreneurs. Large corporations are run by people who use other people’s money, labor and creativity to line their pockets with little to no risk to themselves. Do you really think we would have had the recent financial fiasco if the investment banks were still partnerships and their own money was at risk?
Our dilemma isn’t between government and big business but how to extricate ourselves from this current Frankensteinian amalgam of both.
Andy Absher
Anderson
Letters
Letter: Businesses compete because they must
Discouraging risk-taking is a red herring
- Letters
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Letter: Union attitude must prevail for recovery
Any recovery for the middle class, in the recovery of our economy, will be led by the recovery of the union attitude in America. Nothing else.
- Letter: Founding fathers were humanists
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Letter: Lutz not representing the working class
I feel bad that Rep. Lutz (R) is sad, because Democrats at the Statehouse are representing the working class people of Indiana. While he is representing big business.
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Viewpoint:: Washington must wake up to missile threat
Three years after President Obama opened an outstretched hand to Iran and attempted to reset relations with Russia, the former has restarted its drive to build nuclear weapons including recent missile testing and saber rattling while the latter has dropped its diplomatic relations to Cold War temperatures.
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Letter: Consumer-driven economy will pay off debt
To save America some money — by acclimation of course — let’s not have a presidential election in 2012. We already have a good president who will do his best to kill all Republican bills (DOA) and, consequently, create more good-paying jobs in the $30 per hour range.
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Letter: Gingrich cashes in on political amnesia
Rasmussen says that Romney has flattened nationally. Why?
Two reasons seem to tell the tale. Gingrich has shown that he will fight, and Romney is a Mormon, believed to be a “cult” by a majority of evangelicals. -
Letter: Hiring Winkler not wise spending
As a taxpayer I want to know that my taxes are being spent wisely. Hiring Greg Winkler at a salary of $126,000 is not wise spending.
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Letter: Bill of Rights being nullified by new law
President Obama signed the National Defense Authorization Act on New Year’s Eve. I doubt many Americans noticed its implications because they do not yet comprehend the big picture. This law, coupled with the Patriot Act, is paving the way for America’s direction toward tyranny.
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Letter: $14 trillion debt started by previous president
I’m a proud atheist who’s lucky enough to know the difference between fact and fantasy.
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Letter: Economy putting people in the gutters
We are now getting the results of putting people in the gutters. We need to take a second look at our government and its policies. It’s not working.
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Letter: Union attitude must prevail for recovery
