"The Free Market Backfires" BY David Sirota

[applegrove]

The Free Market Backfires

by David Sirota at In These Times

http://inthesetimes.com/article/15431/the_free_market_backfires_on_conservatives/

"SNIP.............................


So, then, what happens when the insurance industry so touted by the conservative movement starts saying things that wholly contradict that movement's talking points?

This is the unanswered question posed by two new insurance-related reports that expose the bankruptcy of the right's environmental extremism and its opposition to gun control.

The first comes from the insurance industry's official think tank, the Geneva Association. Rejecting conservatives' opposition to the fight against climate change, the organization issued a study documenting “a significant upward trend in the insured losses caused by extreme weather events.” It concluded that the insurance industry should fight back against the conservative movement's attempts to downplay climate change fears and “play an active role in raising awareness of risk and climate change.” It also called for a “transition to a low-carbon economy” and “the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions” because that “will ultimately create a more resilient society.”

Then came a dispatch from the Des Moines Register, which reported that the company insuring most Kansas schools “has refused to renew coverage for schools that permit teachers and custodians to carry concealed firearms on their campuses.” The announcement was a rebuke to a new Kansas law that responded to the Newtown, Conn. school massacre by permitting gun owners to carry firearms in schools.

............................SNIP"

[WillyT]

1. K & R !!!

[freshwest]

2. LOL

[Jackpine Radical]

3. I suppose the most obvious insurance solution to GW

is to simply write exclusion clauses that permit them to deny claims caused by "extreme weather events--" like the old Act of God clauses.

[Katashi_itto]

4. That is only a short term "fix" since the number of extreme weather will only go up.

[Jackpine Radical]

5. The exisence of insurance companies themselves,

at least as capitalist ventures, is time-limited. The cataclysmic future awaiting us all will render insurance companies rather irrelevant.

[Katashi_itto]

8. Agree!

[bvar22]

6. Though I respect Sirota,

and, like Bill Moyer, believe him to be one of the last Thinking Man's Jouranlist,
He is very wrong on this issue.

The "Free Market" didn't "Backfire".

The Free Market worked, and continues to work
[font size=3]Exactly As It was DESIGNED to Work.[/font]

50% of Working Americans NOW make less than $27,000/Yr.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023308914

Right now, forty percent of Americans make less than the minimum wage from 1968.
http://pac.petitions.moveon.org/sign/raise-the-minimum-wage-19/?source=search


Daily CEO Pay Now Exceeds the Average Worker's Annual Salary –
http://thecontributor.com/daily-ceo-pay-now-exceeds-us-workers-annual-salary




76% of Americans are living paycheck-to-paycheck
http://money.cnn.com/2013/06/24/pf/emergency-savings/index.html


New Rule (Passed by Congress and signed by President Obama) signals Kiss of Death for Pensions
http://www.cnbc.com/id/100694955


Corporate Profits Have Grown By 171 Percent Under Obama -- Highest Rate Since 1900
http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/corporate-profits-have-grown-171-percent-under-obama-highest-rate-1900

Wealthy win lion's share of major tax breaks
http://www.boston.com/business/news/2013/05/29/wealthy-win-lion-share-major-tax-breaks/Ua0UyYle21EUXub7g1suCI/story.html

Half of America is in poverty, and its creeping toward 75%
http://www.alternet.org/economy/real-numbers-half-america-poverty-and-its-creeping-toward-75-0

Wealth gap widens as labor's share of income falls
http://www.nbcnews.com/business/wealth-gap-widens-labors-share-income-falls-1B6097385

As the Economy Recovers, the Wealth Gap Widens
http://www.usnews.com/news/blogs/rick-newman/2013/03/11/as-the-economy-recovers-the-wealth-gap-widens

Top One Percent Captured 121 Percent Of All Income Gains
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/12/top-one-percent-income-gains_n_2670455.html

Corporate Profits Hit Record High While Worker Wages Hit Record Low
http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2012/12/03/1270541/corporate-profits-wages-record/?mobile=nc

These things ^ do NOT happen by accident.
They ARE the direct result of "Free Market" Economics.
THIS is EXACTLY what happens when we "get the regulations off of the backs of the Job Creators".

Our Fathers, their Fathers, and their fathers fought and shed BLOOD for DECADES to put those "regulations" "on the BACKS of the Job Creators"
so that we could have a more Equitable System in the United States.

These regulations were callously cast aside by Republican and "Centrist" Democrat alike over the last 30 years in favor of an fucking "Invisible Hand" that NO ONE had EVER seen, and for which no evidence existed!!!

It took a smooth politician to SELL that Bull Shit to a gullible America.

People who know History, KNOW that there was a time when the "Job Creators" were free from burdensome government regulation.
That period was know as the Gilded Age, and the RICH had ALL the money.
Welcome to Gilded Age 2.0.
EXACTLY as designed,
and YOU NEVER HAD A VOTE for something different!




[font size=4]The Graven Image on the altar
of the Church of the Invisible Hand.[/font]

[Wolf Frankula]

7. The 'Free Market' is the Imaginary Heaven

of the Church of the Almighty Dollar.

Wolf