🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <pan.2004.08.02.22.00.27.319926@yahoo.com>, Nexus7 wrote:
> On Mon, 02 Aug 2004 20:24:02 +0000, slim wrote:
>> Brent P wrote:
>>> Based on the perception system and short term thinking that rules
>>> corporate decision making is what gives china the big advantage.
>> 
>> Plus with investors so short-sightedly fickle, only the next quarters
>> numbers have to be good, and those can be easily manipulated so
>> the long term/real costs are not redily evident.
> 
> The reason we went to the moon is that NASA isn't traded on the
> exchanges. Also why health care will not work without government
> oversight. Actually, as we've seen, the markets don't work without
> government oversight. 
> 
> The final accomplishment of conversatism (and also libertarianism) is
> proving the relevance of government. 

Except that government is so similiar to a corporation in with regard
to how they function, the priorities, etc.

Government is also dominated by the same short term thinking. How 
can the elected officals help themselves and their friends/contributors
in the short scale time frame they are in office. How can they retain
power through the next election. How the nation performs on a long
term basis is often an afterthought for government. Time and time 
again government works in the same short term thinking that corporations
do. 

We have seen this time and time again. For instance, the moon landing.
This was a short term decision for political interest and one upping the
soviets. Note that once the political (fulfilling JFK's vision) and 
national security  (staying one up on the Soviets) was accomplished, the 
USA stopped going to the moon, scrapped already built rockets, and has 
never returned. 

So far government's interest in health care has been to satisify the 
donors to political campiagns, lobbiests, etc and so forth. Also
to make people more dependent upon government, increasing government's
power. The government dictates who gets what care, that's impressive
power and will tend to allow those in office to buy votes. Also, 
government's latest entitlement program, a health care one, is great
demostration of how the short term interests of corporations and
government are served over the long term interests of the people 
and the nation. 

And I can think of many other examples of government's short term 
thinking, from automobile regulations to fighting wars.