Originally Posted by GoDuke

First for AwholeCrowly

Hey you wanker. You took to long. Please see this lionk to answer your oil import question.
Crude Oil and Total Petroleum Imports Top 15 Countries

Mr. Grey - Yes the overall world economy would and is imporving as the US economy comes down. As the dollar weeknds our exports will rise and the trade deficit shoudl go down. However the chinese will artificially hold the value of the RMB down so as not to hurt their exports. The ebb and flow of the world economy. It was not so long ago that the US was a major exporter. But when everyione beleives they deserve a $45 / hr job, the jobs will go elsewhere. The new wage policies in China are begining to hurt the factories there causing the prices to rise as they strigle to get workers to move from the farms to the factories now that they can make similiar wages closer to home. The US is due for an econominc adjustment. It is a good thing for the world and US economy in the long run. Things wil get worse here in the US and then the lower dollar will encourage business to again redistribute and we will grow strong again.

This seems so simplistic but it is the short version of what goes on. I have seen this economic change go through southeast asia from country to country and back again (Singapore to Malaysia, to Thailand to China, and now to vietnam and starting to swing back for another go in Thailand. Countries such as the Phillipines get skipped over because of an unstable goverment and will not prosper until their is more control.

Originally Posted by Suburbanite

the thing is these businesses are not ethical what so ever, we need to kill the illuminated, and then open up free trade

Originally Posted by Agent_Grey

Okay conservatives, read my analysis and tell me what you think.

It is the assertion of many conservatives that the private sector is the best for handling virtually everything. The theory, to my understanding, (and correct me if I'm wrong) goes something like this:

1. Private corporations want to make profit, therefore they will run their businesses in the most efficient manner possible.

2. Private corporations are always at the risk of their consumers punishing them for amoral behavior, because they can immediately "vote with their dollars" and therefore are run in the most moral manner possible.

3. being that these two things are the case, the public sector will always be less efficient and less ethical than private corporations, both wasting tax dollars from citizens, and doing an incompetant, shortsighted job to boot.

With me so far? Or is my premise on these things wrong?

Assuming I've got it right, then how do you explain the reprehensible behavior of Haliburton in Iraq?

I watched hearings this weekend on their various practices, and I was appalled at their behavior.

They have killed soldiers indirectly by letting things fall of the backs of trucks for greater profitability elsewhere, not to mention selling weapons to potentially US unfriendly groups.

They have killed soldiers DIRECTLY by improperly de-toxifying water used in their shower facilities (17 dead from this incident.)

They have threatened the health of soldiers by shipping edibles and ice in trucks used to cart corpses around without cleaning in between.

They have gouged US taxpayers and Soldiers alike by overcharging for food, laundry, and other services, not to mention occaisonally charging for services not even being used.

They have displayed repeated belligerent behavior to their own employees when any dissent is expressed.

Et ceterra, et ceterra, et ceterra.

So where's the invisible hand of the market in an example like this? They have no competition, no legal jurrisdiction to be prosecuted in, no incentive to do good work, and no incentive to even be efficient.

How would the public sector, either our government or the Iraqi government do a worse job than these guys?

Originally Posted by Carson

This whole thing is bs. You think Halliburton is a private company? You can call it that as much as you want but everybody knows Halliburton is as tight with the government as the IRS is. This is perhaps the shittest attack on the private sector I have ever seen

Originally Posted by Agent_Grey

Halliburton is indisputably a private corporation. On paper, anybody with half a brain knows they are in bed with the government though They are for-profit. They seek to make money. The fact they are awarded government contracts by conservatives is just another point against the logically bankrupt notion that conservatives seek to benefit the private sector for the good of all of us. the government isn't a representative of just conservatives buddy, its a representation of all American citizens

They seek to benefit the private sector for the sake of the private sector.

And before you go on some-tirade about how I'm some kind of anti-business communist, elt me clarify my personal perspective in one short paragraph:

There *are* things that business, even big business, is better for. I have no problem with anything from Cereal to I-pods being manufactured by for-profit companies, along with almost any consumer good. I just think that other things, such as nation building (Haliburton) Energy suppy (Enron) and Medicine (Merk) run counter to the very benefits privatization is supposed to bestow, hence the obvious problems that have emerged.