My political leanings are pretty much middle of the road. At times I have taken those so-called tests that pop up on Facebook to see what my political leanings are. Most of the time, the results are squarely in the middle. If anything, they would lean slightly to the left.
I have spent more than half of my life as not a member of any political party. When I did join one, it was because I wanted to have a voice in the primaries. I questioned whether I should sign up as a moderate Democrat or a moderate Republican. I decided to go with the Democrats, as they represent the working people better than the Republicans do.
I don't like political extremism in either direction. No party has ALL of the right answers. It is by sharing ideas and cooperating to solve problems that society can move on for the better.
I believe in a mixed economy, which combines public and private enterprise. Each one by itself leaves too much room for greed to take over, so I believe the combination is the best prevention of fraud. We need private enterprise. But we also need a reasonable set of rules by which everyone should play by.
I am troubled by the push for "privatization" of government functions. One must remember that the primary purpose of a business is to earn a profit. Everything else is secondary. Let's use an interstate highway as an example. What is the purpose of building a highway? If it's a public highway, the answer is so that people can drive from Point A to Point B. But what if that highway was owned by a private company? What would the primary purpose be? Because it's owned privately, the primary purpose would be to earn a profit for the owners. Therefore they would need to charge a toll for anyone using that highway. But when the public owns the highway, it is paid for by public funds and it is available for any citizen to use. Remember that when you think about other functions being privately owned or owned by the public.
I have spent more than half of my life as not a member of any political party. When I did join one, it was because I wanted to have a voice in the primaries. I questioned whether I should sign up as a moderate Democrat or a moderate Republican. I decided to go with the Democrats, as they represent the working people better than the Republicans do.
I don't like political extremism in either direction. No party has ALL of the right answers. It is by sharing ideas and cooperating to solve problems that society can move on for the better.
I believe in a mixed economy, which combines public and private enterprise. Each one by itself leaves too much room for greed to take over, so I believe the combination is the best prevention of fraud. We need private enterprise. But we also need a reasonable set of rules by which everyone should play by.
I am troubled by the push for "privatization" of government functions. One must remember that the primary purpose of a business is to earn a profit. Everything else is secondary. Let's use an interstate highway as an example. What is the purpose of building a highway? If it's a public highway, the answer is so that people can drive from Point A to Point B. But what if that highway was owned by a private company? What would the primary purpose be? Because it's owned privately, the primary purpose would be to earn a profit for the owners. Therefore they would need to charge a toll for anyone using that highway. But when the public owns the highway, it is paid for by public funds and it is available for any citizen to use. Remember that when you think about other functions being privately owned or owned by the public.
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