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"The price gougers save lives" - John Stossel: Total Wanker?

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mr blur Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Sep-09-05 11:10 AM
Original message
"The price gougers save lives" - John Stossel: Total Wanker?
http://www.townhall.com/columnists/JohnStossel/js20050907.shtml

It's the price "gougers" who bring the water, ship the gasoline, fix the roof, and rebuild the cities. The price "gougers" save lives.

" For thirty years now, 20/20 co-anchor John Stossel has courageously gone against the grain of the liberal media by proving that the free market makes life better. Now, in Give Me a Break, he does it again. Taking on such sacred cows as the FDA, feminists, and scaremongering environmental activists, he shows how the problems that government tries and fails to fix can be solved better by the extraordinary power of the free market".

So,..total wanker?
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trotsky Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Sep-09-05 11:12 AM
Response to Original message
1. John Stossel: Corporate Stooge
He used to be on the side of the little guy, now he sides with the rich & powerful. Hey, can you blame him? The little guy doesn't pay all that well!
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K-W Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Sep-09-05 11:16 AM
Response to Original message
2. Its a good example of how anything can be rationalized. nt
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JHB Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Sep-09-05 11:16 AM
Response to Original message
3. I heard this crap after Andrew, too.
Yeah. It's so heroic to pick the pocket of people who've already had their lives turned upside down. Let's give'em medals! Or even better, tax breaks!

:puke:
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txaslftist Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Sep-09-05 11:20 AM
Response to Original message
4. He's a die hard, free market libertarian.
You can get more of this swill over at Lew Rockwell. They have some good articles on government fuck ups and they post what Cindy Sheehan writes, but they're take on the market can best be described as "quaint".

I liked Stossel's take on government subsidies to farms, though. "If a guy in a city opens a restaurant and can't support it, it fails. Why should a farm be different? Why should taxpayers subsidize a failing business?" Good question.
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K-W Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Sep-09-05 11:26 AM
Response to Reply #4
9. He is a sophist.
Edited on Fri Sep-09-05 11:29 AM by K-W
I liked Stossel's take on government subsidies to farms, though. "If a guy in a city opens a restaurant and can't support it, it fails. Why should a farm be different? Why should taxpayers subsidize a failing business?" Good question.

Are you kidding? Do you really not see the difference between a farm and a restaurant?

His argument only makes sense if you overgeneralize economics into meaninglessness and apply market fundementalist principals that are based on faith not fact.

Edit: Not that I support the current agricultural economy wher subsidies are used to prop up agro-business, but in a more just economy subsidizing food production is not the same as subsidizing a luxery service.
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Mutley Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Sep-09-05 11:22 AM
Response to Original message
5. Wanker, indeed.
Why the hell are people DEFENDING the price gougers?!? Is there some sort of political gain to come from this?
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trotsky Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Sep-09-05 11:25 AM
Response to Reply #5
8. It keeps Repuke supporters placated.
Otherwise they might start to question things, and we can't have that.
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Mutley Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Sep-09-05 11:50 AM
Response to Reply #8
16. UGH!
Maybe it's the Heineken talking, but I just can't believe this is AMERICA we are living in right now. This is supposed to be the place where those in the world who have no hope can come and start over. But no more. America is dead. I just can't believe it! :cry:
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Dees Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Sep-09-05 11:23 AM
Response to Original message
6. Stossel... enemy of the people...Heritage goon
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Zenlitened Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Sep-09-05 11:24 AM
Response to Original message
7. Dumber Than Store-Brand Corn Flakes.
Not the Brightest Bulb On the JumboTron.

Dumb As a Box of Waffles.

A Few Sandwiches Shy of a Picnic.

:shrug:

Or just a pathetic, delusional little man.
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freemen2005 Donating Member (226 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Sep-09-05 11:27 AM
Response to Original message
10. SEND HIM TO GITMO!
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stickdog Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Sep-09-05 11:28 AM
Response to Original message
11. "Hospitals that only take cash up front save lives."
The next step in this bizarre argument.

Oh, don't forget "mafia loan sharks save lives."
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Bob3 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Sep-09-05 11:32 AM
Response to Original message
12. price gougers get lynched by enraged mobs as well.
there is nothing is lower than those who take advantage of a disaster to make a quick buck. Free Market jerks like Stossle reduce all human interaction to money - well we are not built like that - even god damn Neanderthals took care of the weak and sick members of their group - unlike say * and his cronies.


Oh yes - total utter lying wanker.
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samsingh Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Sep-09-05 11:34 AM
Response to Original message
13. stossel should go away and give the rest of us a break
i hate that mf.
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Canuckistanian Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Sep-09-05 11:41 AM
Response to Original message
14. WWJG?
Who would Jesus Gouge?
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miss_kitty Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Sep-09-05 11:49 AM
Response to Original message
15. "John Stossel: Total Wanker?" YES!
For years and years.
Media Outlet: John Stossel
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Raydawg1234 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Sep-09-05 11:57 AM
Response to Original message
17. He has flawed logic
Stossel talks as if the price of gas only went up near Louisianna. I live in Connecticut, and the price of gas went up 60 cents in one day. Bulshit not even stossel can defend, how many lives is it saving up here?
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K-W Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Sep-09-05 12:00 PM
Response to Reply #17
18. Juan Cole on Shell price gouging in the Bronx
http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0908-33.htm

Nothing at all to do with supply and demand, need, or anything. Its profit, pure profit.
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