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Then Clinton followed up with fake lawsuits against MS to preempt the rights of competitors who otherwise could have sued individually, but then intentionally failing to win. I certainly think both Bush administrations also failed to enforce the laws against Microsoft, often intentionally. But Clinton was clearly more blatant about it. Quote:
It is much more MS paying a fee to the government for the ongoing right to cheat its customers and competitors than it is any serious attempt at law enforcements. |
It is really confusing to use the world "liberal" in conversations with Americans. The word has a different meaning to a European audience. To us, liberalism is a right wing movement as it is all about liberty (and about minimal states, low taxes and unbridled capitalism) whereas to Americans, it is almost coincides with socialism (which only adds more confusion; the average American seems to equate socialism with communism...).
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Well, let me say this before I forget to: partly because American intellectuals certainly are arrogant and partly because European governments have been experimenting with socialism much longer and more seriously, European governments are wiser about socialism. We're hearing over here that they are now experimenting with market-based solutions, whereas our government and our intellectuals are eager to go the opposite direction.
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The meanings of the political terms are always shifting. I'm not old enough to have been a "liberal" in my youth the same way Ronald Reagan was a liberal in his youth. (Except for "church and state" issues, I've always been a conservative). If you look at most of what is written (by liberal historians and commentators) about how Ronald Reagan's view changed over his lifetime, you'll see lots of descriptions of a tremendous shift from left wing to right wing. But stripped of all the nonsense and distortion, all of that is things like the shift from being opposed to racial discrimination in his youth to being opposed to racial reverse discrimination in his old age. To the left (as well as the really far right) opposing racial discrimination and opposing racial reverse discrimination are contradictory positions. Obviously I think they are the same position. Reagan kept his point of view while the national political landscape moved. As a result, any of the many historians describing that shift in Reagan's views are instead accidentally documenting the shift in the meaning of the underlying terms. I knew current American use of the word "liberal" is very far removed from traditional European use of the same word. I didn't know it was also far removed from current European use. |
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Bah ... political parties ... they're only in your head. In reality they all have the same agenda.
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Here in the UK, the "Labour" government under Blair and Brown, has been forcing "market-based solutions" all public service. They have determinedly ignored public opinion, and all the available evidence that privatisation results in a worse service at higher cost. The result is that that the Labour Party has lost many of its core supporters, and the National Health Service is now a cash cow for private enterprise. |
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Look every where in this world to the cost of the health services it is sky high . So is because of the Labour government ? Or is because of the way the health services works ? Or our demands for health services ? |
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And this is without even going into the issues of poor quality service delivered by PFI contractors. Quote:
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Well I know from my English colleagues that a lot of companies in the UK give there employees private insurance for health services and it started
already about 15 years ago . |
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Something else Europeans have been better at is choosing their progressive policies through the democratic process. I understand that in European countries, abortion was accepted through legislation rather than forced by a court system pretending to be a legislative body. That isn't the case in America. |
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