reddit.com Interviews Ron Paul (Part 5 of 5)

[SkullOfYorick]

I wish Great Britain had a Ron Paul. We have Daniel Hannan and Douglas Carswell, but they are not nearly as popular as they should be. We also have the United Kingdom Independence Party, but unfortunately UKIP supports the wars against the Middle East.

[666789443]

I hope he gets elected in 2012.

[SepiaLatimanus]

You can't be a libertarian without insisting on freedom from corporations as well as freedom from the government.

[jhildeTheFree]

@SepiaLatimanus But government is the largest corporation in the country. And government has military and police force. A corporation cannot physically force you to do anything. Any unfair corporations have, they get by cozying up to the government. So shrink government, and you automatically get "freedom from corporations" as you say.

[robodril1]

@jhildeTheFree I have often said asking for a larger government to "protect" you from corporations is like demanding you assailant use a bigger club. No one likes big government more than big corporations. They get to use the guns of the government to force people to buy their products or bail them out after they fleece their own companies, or to smash competitors. I would say 90 % of government now serves these schemes, and have nothing to do with protecting anyone.

[jhildeTheFree]

@SepiaLatimanus *any unfair advantage corporations have

[xxstealyourface]

I hear light rail and I think of marsh mellow trains...

[bunny153649]

Ron Paul for president!!!!

[RedStarTheComrade]

Man, you guys are so lucky.

The U.S. has a Ron Paul, Canada has a Ron Paul, and the U.K. has a Ron Paul. Now, if only the Philippines (my homeland) had one, too.

Come to think of it, ALL nations should have at least 1 Ron Paul in their government. That would be sweet.

[curryman4life]

Too bad we have Obama too

[EnonimusTransmission]

What a rare, honest man full of truth and a deep understanding of liberty. "Freedom really does bring people together" -- what a great statement. Politics today are all about one group of people with aligned beliefs gaining power over all the other groups and imposing every aspect of their belief on them.

[seminar7]

I love Ron Paul, but he should drive on the privatized Indiana Toll Road - 3 years of endless construction and incredible curves so cars/trucks can hit the guardrails and concrete barriers - especially in the winter.

This is like the one time in my life that I can say the state did a better job running something.

[gooseCha]

but i bet you that if they would have had the incentive back before all the regulation they would have learned by now to build them better. My whole life in my state there has been construction on highways..my whole life. And the company the state contracted to pave the streets only make the pavement last 7 years so they always have work. (I know because my step father is a chemist for this company) real talk

[jeruon]

I don't think "privatized" is being defined properly. If a road was constructed by government and then transferred into private ownership, its creation and route cannot be attributed to free enterprise. If a government mandate guarantees a monopoly of "privatized" roadways, its failure is not the result of free enterprise. If an industry exist with a 99% government monopoly, it is likely impossible for any true private competition to exist, and the outcomes of those that do are highly distorted.

[seminar7]

I just want you to drive it and see how bad it is. Your comments have nothing to do with the rubber hitting the road. What is reality is taht now that it is private, there is essentially nothing we can do to "fix" it.

[jeruon]

All of your complaints are immaterial. This would be obvious if you were able to comprehend my response. I'm sure your privatized roads are bad. I do not doubt your measure of their quality, but that doesn't matter. Just try one more time to comprehend what I said and why it relates to your criticism of privatized roads. I'll give you a hint: they are likely not private roads at all, but they very well may be fascist roads.

[seminar7]

I'm not worried about the sins of the past like you are. I'm worried about today and the future.

So tell my how to"fix" the road now that it is in private hands. The company has a fiduciary responsibility to shareholders to cut costs and increase the tolls (aka raise profits)

[VictoryCough]

I like this last question. I'll be honest, too often do I drive after a few drinks and I can't defend it. I put others lives at danger because I don't want to pay $30 bucks for a cab. When i honestly can't drive I wont, but most of the time I'm right at the legal limit or barely over it. It would be nice to have a better public transportation. But, thats government for you. They cancel bus routes instead of expanding them and if you live in the suburbs forget about it.

[wackassegyption]

I'm goin to the book store Wednesday.

RON PAUL 2010!12! ASAP!

[NosePickingSob]

explosion of wisdom OMG

[louis345]

Wow, I love RP. I love the whole concept of Free Market. It saddens me that Free Market is used as a political escape goat, when it fact it is the most logical solution to our problems.

[FreeAgentXIII]

I completely agree. The government aims for good enough, private enterprise aims for better than the competition. We win with private enterprise.

[ceasey0xoogurl]

i love RP!

[McRocket]

Thank you Ron.

This public transit idea of yours is womething that I have never thought of before.

It sounds VERY interesting and I will now give it a LOT more thought.

Have a nice weekend.

[chucksheen]

WE LOVE RON PAUL!

[Tasadaru]

Nothing in government is free. There is always some kind of payment to be made whether it be taxes or some other method. Lousy public schools are paid through taxes.

[zdwade]

how does it hurt the poor if all these companies are buying bio tech and increasing production, like creating more food and helping to feed the poor?

[VoteNixon2008]

Those are separate topics that I talked about in a single post and I noted this with a postscript. Sorry if it's confusing.

The effects of biotech on the food supply is controversial however with monopolies ,cartels and other forms of capitalistic exploitation

They also have (in my opinion) no right to patent genetic information that they didn't make from scratch. They should not be able to take extant wild-type sequences and patent these

[RationalDischarge]

Ron Paul is a libertarian, not an Objectivist. There may be similarities, but there is also a WORLD of difference. For one thing, Objectivists have no problem with war, even the undeclared, Unconstitutional Iraq War.

Also, Objectivists have a philosophical disdain for charity, whereas real free marketeers realize that charity and generosity are not only moral imperatives, but also the foundation upon which any truly free and voluntary society would have to be built.

[jeruon]

Ayn Rand had a very dismal view of war in general. She was a strong opponent of even WW2 and the interventionists of the time. She also said that war is the second greatest evil that man can perpetrate, with the first being totalitarian government.

Though there may be strong differences in some motivations between libertarians and objectivists, I don't think there is too much of a difference in the societies that would result from the application of each.

Dont let the difference define you.

[ih2005]

Generic uniformity of the public approach to mass transit, Paul speculates brilliantly on the diverse solutions that might have been. "Once the politicians get involved, then it becomes a political football"  Period, nuff said.

[ddstar]

I think most of our problems would be solved if the Federal Reserve was removed and a stable constitutional system was in place.

Get End the Fed!

[james1844]

Ron is the greatest.

[jas16899]

"I take it to the bar, so I don't drive drunk"

Great way to start off a question.

[TheLostRepublic]

NO WAI Ron Paul is to stay in texas, untill he is president ;)

[patremb]

Canada needs free market representative like Ron Paul.

[banopr]

and get completely laughed out of parliament?

[SaintEntreri]

Huh, now I know why all my Canadian relatives come to the States for medical care.

[UziSprayTF]

I wish Canada had a Ron Paul.

[jman196]

I do too. I hope the ideas spread because the majority of Canadians are quite infatuated with power, coercion, big government and the nanny state.

[17Spartacus76]

Check out Paul McKeever and the Freedom Party

[UziSprayTF]

I'm actually a member :)

[ch1kusoo]

hello my fellow Canadians!

I also wish we have a Ron Paul here.

The National Post posted an article about health care reform in this country (that's right! in Canada) and it mentioned that some peopel are afraid of "U.S. healthcare" being the solution.

What most of the people in this country don't understand is that U.S. healthcare is bad because it's corporate healthcare. But these people dont' care, they just blame the free market because Iggy and Layton said so.

[xyroclast]

@UziSprayTF No, I'm happy without one.

[luapp82]

@UziSprayTF so do I .

[guineapigyt]

@UziSprayTF I'd move to Canada if they did!

[LoveAndLiberty1776]

I am waiting for my shipment of end the fed!

[Taikaru]

You didn't even listen to what he said, did you...?

[notskorn]

What he said is basically "I'm Ron Paul, I know better than the people who founded this country and who have been running it for more than 200 years". Sorry bud but if that were true you wouldn't have to get your message out to people through youtube.

[gypster2004]

How about you back that up with some facts, how does he say this and what makes you think what he says is ANY DIFFERENT than what the founders said? Seriously, pick up a book on Thomas Jefferson, Madison, Thomas Paine or Sam Adams. I dare you.

[SaintEntreri]

Actually, what he is saying is that the founders were way smarter than the idiots who have been running this country for about the last hundred years.

[aurayon]

Wrong.

[pguitarb]

wow, you're a real think one, aren't ya?

[Chainedorlo]

Are you seriously that ignorant? Do you hear his DOMA explanation, or are you too retarded to listen?

[SaintEntreri]

Nope. No need for choice at all, because government provides false choices where there should simply be freedom. For everyone.

[notskorn]

What's freedom?

[SaintEntreri]

For one, not having to pay other people's bills. For two, not having to pay for a war (three wars, soon to be four) that is immoral and reprehensible. Three, not having nearly every move one makes tracked, tagged, and logged "for our own safety". These are all hallmarks of fascism. I could go on and on about the bullshit the last president and the current one have heaped on us. But it's all apparently different now.

[DragonzPlay]

you make it sound like you are not paying for those things now..

oh I know

the government is a big cauldron of never ending money right?

[DragonzPlay]

that statement I made is to notskorn btw

silly utube comments

[StarchildSF]

You're already paying for police, K-12 school, etc., now! But the costs are hidden, and people are forced to pay for services they don't use.

It's also very unlikely your house would just burn. First of all, if you weren't paying for fire protection or didn't have insurance, you would tend to be more careful, make sure to have lots of working fire extinguishers all over, not have lots of flammable stuff sitting around, etc. It would make you behave more responsibly... (continued next comment)

[StarchildSF]

If you didn't pay for fire protection, probably a fire service would come and put out the fire anyway. Why? Great PR for the company! Of course if you looked like someone who could afford to pay but refused to, the firefighters might still come, but make you feel like a real cad for not paying, like if you stiffed a waiter on the tip. Or your neighbors might pay so *their* houses wouldn't catch fire, but then you'd have to deal with a reputation as the neighborhood a-hole until you made good.

[JoeltheStampede]

Just so damn badass.

[wcarlpdrysdale]

end the fed!