Anti-socialist forces missed one... the roads

[Cresent City Kid]

Can you imagine private corporations owning, building and maintaining every road and highway in the country? Would you have a coin operated gate at your driveway to let you out?

This is just a silly thought experiment, they didn't want the roads, no money to be made. Sorry to deceive you, but this is about healthcare. The concept of everyone pitching in what they can for something we need, and letting the government manage it is not that far fetched. We don't think about "socialized roads" because they've been that way for all our lives. It's the opposite with healthcare.

Fixing healthcare means some who make truckloads of money will make less. A large majority of Americans are okay with that. I checked in on C-SPAN to watch the debate on healthcare. All they did was to debate on how they were going to debate the issue. They need to stop being timid, stand up to the entrenched interests who created this mess, and get on with it. It's safe to ignore republican arguments that the people don't buy anymore. Pass reform even if it means, God forbid, government involvement in healthcare in some way.

[Towlie]

1. Don't feel too secure about government-owed roads.

Our Republican Governor Charlie Crist, here in Florida, recently tried to lease Alligator Alley, the stretch of I-75 that connects our east and west coasts, to a private company. Fortunately, as you said, "they didn't want the roads, no money to be made."

[Cresent City Kid]

2. An Interstate for lease?

What if they ran it like an airline and had one lane for "economy class" and one for "business class", no crossing over?

[Towlie]

4. But I didn't mean to distract from your point.

Maybe it would drive your point home better if you brought up the (ridiculous) idea of private fire departments that only rescue people and put out fires if the owners have insurance.

[Cresent City Kid]

8. Good one

Does a publicly funded and run police force unfairly inhibit competition amongst security companies? Oh no, the cops are commies!

[kegler14]

3. You can't get Freeptards or other conservatives to talk about roads

because they know roads need to be operated by government and they know that you need to raise gas taxes (really a user fee) to keep them up. But, shhhh, you can't say that out loud.

[Cresent City Kid]

6. This reminds me of Monty Python's Life of Brian

"Apart from roads, medicine, public order, sanitation, water, education, and public health, what have taxes ever done for us?"

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

5. I posted on that very thought on Sunday.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x5893500

[Cresent City Kid]

7. I didn't see that one

I agree, the notion that our system works is code for "it works for me."

[zbdent]

9. what about the waterways?

I remember watching one of the cable shows like the History Channel, which pointed out that the American waterways are kept available for commerce by the Army Corps of Engineers, at a public taxpayer cost of over a billion dollars a year ...