[Peace-discuss] socializing an industry -- good but also bad

[LAURIE SOLOMON]

Come on Karen; what is to keep executives of private corporations from
working with each other to control an industry and mismanage it?  Look at
the oil and natural gas industry, the coal and strip mining industry, the
auto industry, etc.  Horrible things can happen to natural resources in the
hands of the wrong private executives as well, just consider (1) the lumber
industry which has cut down all kinds of forests for private profit leaving
the land incapable of handling run off resulting in floods, erosion, and
polluting of rivers and streams, (2) power company facilities which have
built dams that have resulted in flooding of usable land, killing of wild
life, and destruction of fish runs, or (3) the chemical industry which
produced, maintained, and shipped toxic and dangerous products and
by-products in environmentally unsafe ways as well as in potentially
dangerous fashion to human beings and communities.

Besides, while Watt may have been horrible in his management of federal
properties and natural resources, it often was in collaboration with and
urging of the captains of private industry or in conjunction with the
actions of private company executives, who were also simultaneously
mismanaging their privately owned properties and natural resources in ways
adverse to the common good, harmful to the environment and future
generations of people and animals, and destructive to  currently existing
human beings and communities.  The things you are worrying about and bring
up are always risks whether in privately controlled industries or publically
controlled ones.

-----Original Message-----
From: peace-discuss-bounces at lists.chambana.net
[mailto:peace-discuss-bounces at lists.chambana.net] On Behalf Of Karen Medina
Sent: Wednesday, December 10, 2008 5:53 PM
To: Peace-discuss
Subject: Re: [Peace-discuss] socializing an industry -- good but also bad

>   Amen to all that!, and I'd add to the list "food,
>   energy and essential services" health insurance, the
>   railroads. The profit motive (capitalism) in
>   "essential institutions or industries" is not one
>   which can be trusted to lead to the best and most
>   efficient services for all the people, and which
>   will lead to a sustainable society.    --mkb

Car industries too?

Banks, I kind of like that idea. 

I'll just point out that horrible things can happen to natural resources in
the hands 
of the wrong executive (James Watt was a horrible Secretary of the
Interior). 

What is to keep a state owned industry from being mismanaged the same way? 
Schools, for example, are being mismanaged. FEMA. 

-karen medina
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