Profits can kill. Profits can destroy. Profits can corrupt.

[riqster]

https://bluntandcranky.wordpress.com/2015/03/26/profits-can-kill-profits-can-destroy-profits-can-corrupt/

Tons of source info at the link. (Sorry that they don't come across with a cut/paste.)

Regular readers know that Mr. Blunt and Cranky has had long careers in business and the arts, and is therefore not at all opposed to making money. Indeed, Adam Smith is frequently cited here: the man was a firm believer in a WELL-REGULATED free market. Because he was smart enough to see the harm that unchecked profits can cause.

Profits are not inherently bad: in the right measure, they can do a lot of good. But anything can be overdone: and the Teapublican “greed is good” mantra is an object lesson. Here, then, are three examples of the horrors that can be wrought by profits:

Number A: America’s profit-centered “health care” system kills lots of people. Including this writer’s only son. Yes, Aetna has death panels: people are denied care based on profit margins. That is why my son was kicked out of the hospital just a few hours after awakening from a coma. PROFITS CAN AND DO KILL. PROFITS KILLED MY KID.

Letter 2: American industry is constantly pushing for less (or no) regulation, in order to increase profit. Thence came disasters such as massive oil spills, poisoned rivers and aquifers, and destructive, deadly industrial accidents. Profits can and do destroy.

Thirdly: American politicos are taking bribes in record quantities to enhance the profitability of private businesses with taxpayer dollars. Yes, they call them “contributions”, but c’mon: these are bribes. Bribes that result in the theft of our hard-earned. Profits can and do corrupt.

Once again, Gentle Reader: your humble correspondent is not, repeat NOT opposed to profits. But not everything has a free-market solution. Some things are better divorced from a financial profit motive. Some things must be non-profit in order to succeed: things like health, education, public safety, and so on.

It’s long past time we put the final nail in the coffin of Reagan/Bush voodoo economics and its resulting death, destruction and corruption.

Reality is calling, America: better pick up the phone while we still can.

[Bluenorthwest]

1. You have a background in the arts?

That surprises me.

[riqster]

2. Music, theatre and such. On and offstage, composing, performing, etc.4 decades plus and still going.

People are deeper than one can see on a discussion board.

[Bluenorthwest]

3. It's what I do for a living as well.

What do you know....

[riqster]

4. Regrettably, I must also do IT these days. Pays the rest of the bills.

Very cool that you are in the arts.

Common ground is a great thing.