[brandondrury]

I've been pretty vocal here in this Irrelevant section that I'm a big believer in capitalism. I like the idea that the guy who works the hardest and the smartest succeeds. I think supply and demand is a good thing. I think when the government gets it's nasty little paws in anything, they screw it up. I think corruption runs rampant and I think our tax money is wasted on stuff that we simply do not need.

However, I've came across an issue that concerns me significantly.

1)On “The Smartest Guys In The Room” (The Enron Story) you can see that brokers (or whoever they are) calling a power plant in California and asking them to turn off the plant. This caused way too many people to have no electricity, caused a panic, and the price of energy soared. This was profitable to Enron, but caused people to live without electricity. The people who had electricity were forced to pay outlandish amounts of money for it. This isn't capitalism!

2)Now I'm watching Sicko by Michael Moore. While Mr. Moore swings quite a bit further from my capitalist roots that I feel safe going, but he often brings up some interesting points. In Sicko, Michael Moore mentions how health insurance companies go through dirty, deceptive schemes to get out of paying for insurance claims even though they have no problem with taking our money on a monthly basis in the first place. While I feel that insurance companies have the right to turn down initial coverage to anyone they feel like it, I don't feel that insurance companies have a right to refuse to pay when a 22 year old gets cancer. The reason was “you are too young to get cancer”! I'm sure she was thinking the same thing. “Too young” doesn't seem like a good reason to reject paying the bill. (Note: Michael Moore tends to like sensationalism a bit much and may be leaving out parts of these stories or focusing on non-typical situations. You never know.)
This isn't capitalism!

So, in both cases, we have a situation where a company can benefit by manipulating the needs of others. Both examples are clear cut cases of corruption. In my “utopian” view of capitalism, corruption isn't supposed to work like this. I couldn't imagine Dish Network turning off their satellite service to Sacramento, CA for 5 days. They'd loose tons of money. This is how I feel that capitalism is supposed to work. Dish Network would not rest until they had solved the problem so they can make their customers happy.

So, maybe “pure” capitalism is a thing of the past. Maybe government corruption is simply too great.

Maybe capitalism works a lot better for our "wants" and socialism works better for our needs? (I'm asking!). Maybe it's better to have a socialized fire department. I could imagine an Enron Firestation saying "Yes, I'm aware that your house is on fire, but today ends in "day" and therefore we have a $5,000 surcharge.". I think we can all agree that this is not what we want. I'll gladly pitch in my taxes to pay for fire coverage (but I want to vote on every new truck and building they buy!) The dude with an ash house doesn't need to be hit with a huge bill. It appears that crooks have managed to need in under the radar of free enterprise and fuck us real hard!

So in my head I'm debating which is worse: Enron, Health Insurance Companies, or the socialization of our needs. The public school system is socialized. It is shit, driven by political agendas, and costs way more money than better private schools assuming that private schools are subsidized (at least locally). Would health care be the same under a socialized system? Is that worse than a 22 year old being rejected cancer treatment because she is “too young”?

Brandon