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Originally Posted by The_Dunedan
Since Corporations are propped up by the Gov't, they are insulated from the pressures of the Market; look at the big American airlines. The big boys, such as American and Delta, have been in this pits for years and have declared bankruptcy 3-4 times each. This is because their service and employee relations blow, and as a consequence they arelosong customers and employees. The market is "selecting against" American Airlines, to borrow the biological term. In a Free Market, AA would have gone out of buisiness a long time ago, as customers and emplyees defected to a more reasonable and responsive competitor.
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AA and Delta get bailouts because of the service they provide. When the auto repair shop down the street goes bankrupt the govt doesn't bail them out. That's because there are enough repair shops to cover the slack and if there aren't, it's relatively easy to set up shop. That isn't so with the airline industry.
The airline industry is vital to our economy and we can't afford to have one of the big ones just drop out of existance all of a sudden. Sure, in the long run things will work out but in the short term we won't be able to get people where they need to be.
On a tangent, there are massive farm subsidies, probably too much. However, it is important that our nation maintains the ability to feed itself if the shit hits the fan and our food suppliers cut us off. If the govt needs to kick them back a few to keep that ability, then so be it (as long as it is kept to reasonable levels).
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In a Free Market, a strike or boycott is the "nuclear option" available to employees and customers, both individually and collectively. Strikes and boycotts can cripple or destroy even a major company in very short order ( just as Smith & Wesson ), by running through their assets until they go broke. If a company can't sell a poduct ( because of a boycott ) or produce one ( because of a walkout ) they go broke, as they should. Companies which screw their employees or consumers deserve to fail and, in a Free Market system, they would.
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Be realistic, Americans are way too passive to enact and keep with widespread boycotts. They rarely ever get anything done.
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As a case-study, let's specifically address pollution. Let's assume we have a company that produces Pork Rinds. Now, in order to produce the Pork Rinds, this company owns a large pig farm, with all the usual accompanying mess.
People downstream of the pig farm are getting sick, as they frequently do, from runoff, fumes, ammonia overload, tainted groundwater, etc.
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Here is the problem, the LBT way is to let things go until people get sick. Shouldn't we be proactive and do what we do right now by mandating preventative measures to keep people from getting sick in the first place?
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Worse yet, everyone with an even plausible illness connected to the hog farm is now initiating a Class Action lawsuit. Our fictional Pork Rind company has a very short time in which to clean up their act, or suffer the consequences.
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Yes because when sick people take the corporation to court the public rallies around them. Members of the opinion media don't laugh at them and either say they are looking for a lottery ticket or that they should have known the risks of living near a pig farm. The best thing is that once they get their millions it brings their dead back to life.