Bill Maher: New Rule: Not Everything in America Has to Make a Profit

[devilgrrl]

This is a great rant and F*** the Bill Maher haters!

How about this for a New Rule: Not everything in America has to make a profit. It used to be that there were some services and institutions so vital to our nation that they were exempt from market pressures. Some things we just didn't do for money. The United States always defined capitalism, but it didn't used to define us. But now it's becoming all that we are.

Did you know, for example, that there was a time when being called a "war profiteer" was a bad thing? But now our war zones are dominated by private contractors and mercenaries who work for corporations. There are more private contractors in Iraq than American troops, and we pay them generous salaries to do jobs the troops used to do for themselves ­-- like laundry. War is not supposed to turn a profit, but our wars have become boondoggles for weapons manufacturers and connected civilian contractors.

Prisons used to be a non-profit business, too. And for good reason --­ who the hell wants to own a prison? By definition you're going to have trouble with the tenants. But now prisons are big business. A company called the Corrections Corporation of America is on the New York Stock Exchange, which is convenient since that's where all the real crime is happening anyway. The CCA and similar corporations actually lobby Congress for stiffer sentencing laws so they can lock more people up and make more money. That's why America has the world's largest prison population ­-- because actually rehabilitating people would have a negative impact on the bottom line.

Television news is another area that used to be roped off from the profit motive. When Walter Cronkite died last week, it was odd to see news anchor after news anchor talking about how much better the news coverage was back in Cronkite's day. I thought, "Gee, if only you were in a position to do something about it."

more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bill-maher/new-rule-not-everything-i_b_244050.html

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

1. Alas, the people running the prisons should be inhabiting them. K&R

[Aristus]

13. Jim Morrison wrote about this decades ago.

"Do you know freedom exists in a schoolbook?
Do you know madmen are running our prisons?
Within a jail,
Within a gaol,
Within a white, free Protestant maelstrom?

We're perched headlong on the edge of boredom
We're reaching for death on the end of a candle
We're trying for something that has already found us..."

[Echo In Light]

2. Sick empire

[catzies]

3. There are only 3 men I'd ever leave my man for, and Bill Maher's one of them.

(the other 2 being Matt Groening and Henry Rollins)

[Soylent Brice]

5. nice picks, but what about Christopher Walken???

[Soylent Brice]

4. thanks for posting.

he's spot on here.

[devilgrrl]

6. kick

:kick:

[VenusRising]

7. My favorite part...

If conservatives get to call universal health care "socialized medicine," I get to call private health care "soulless vampires making money off human pain."


Go, Bill!!

:patriot: & Rec'd

[redqueen]

8. I agree with him on this... great rant.

But I still can't stand the misogynistic little twit.

[Uncle Joe]

9. Kicked and highly recommended.

Thanks for the thread, devilgrrl.:thumbsup:

[Initech]

10. I completely agree with everything Maher said.

Oh............ and FUCK the profiteers and the nickel-and-dimers! They all deserve to die in a fire.

[devilgrrl]

11. kick

:kick:

[sixmile]

12. Kicked for the truth!

[mnhtnbb]

14. Great rant. He's absolutely right. Capitalism has no sense of community

or social conscience.

I posted an article here a couple of days ago that cited the administrative costs of different
hospitals: for-profit, private non-profit, and public. Guess which had the highest overhead?
Yup, for-profit. The article concluded that as more for-profit hospitals materialized in the 80's and 90's, they were contributing to the acceleration of health care costs.

http://journals.democraticunderground.com/mnhtnbb/193

[devilgrrl]

15. kick!

:kick:

[ColbertWatcher]

16. k+r, n/t

[TexasObserver]

17. Recommend

[devilgrrl]

18. kick

:kick:

[earth mom]

19. People here on DU need to start paying attention to the truth!

Maher is speaking it and it ain't pretty!

Fuck the soulless vampire bastards making money off of human pain!

:grr:

[nashville_brook]

20. we've become f'n Ferengi.