Conservativism in practice 3

AMY GOODMAN: It's interesting that in the elections yesterday in Utah -- Republican governor, Republican-led legislature -- and school vouchers were defeated.

NAOMI KLEIN: Yeah, because these are not popular policies. And, you know, this comes down to such a core principle: is every life of equal value? And people are seeing that erode and all of these two-tiered models. People, I think, are increasingly identifying this logic throughout and rejecting this logic.

You know, I wrote in the column that in all of the privatized responses -- Blackwater has been saying -- Blackwater has been using the fires in the San Diego area as a real public relations gift. They have been building tent cities. They have been handing out all kind of humanitarian aid. And they say, you know, "This is just what we do. We just help communities." But the fact is that we know that Blackwater doesn't just -- isn't a humanitarian organization. They have the mission: protect the principal, protect whoever paid them. And this is what permeates all of this privatized disaster response. It's not "protect everyone"; it's "protect the principal." So if we believe in other principles, besides that you should pay to be saved, the time has come to "protect the principle."

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20071119/klein

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Category:

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Tags:

• conservative
• libertarian
• bush
• cheney
• ron
• paul
• shock
• doctrine
• naomi
• klein
• amy
• goodman

[1000101er]

Klein misrepresents Friedman's ideas.

Friedman was always an advocate of peace and individual rights. He opposed the war in Iraq and he would have been the first to oppose sweetheart deals for private contractors.

What Klein seems to oppose are corporatism and neoconservativism. Friedman would absolutely agree with her on these points.

She is creating a straw man. Unfortunately he can no longer defend himself.

[madashelldude]

there is a difference between paying lip service for peace and advocating economic for policies that help peace. Friedman's ideas failed in EVERY country they were tried, including the USA and Chile. That's enough proof of what Klein says, no need to get into sophism.

[TimeWarp66]

This woman is a 3rd rate intellectual lightweight. She needs to shut her fucking mouth before I do it for her.

[madashelldude]

Thanks Dr. Timewarp. I am sure she lost a lot of credibility now that you, an obvious intellectual hevyweight and fearless smacker of women folk presented your opinion. Let me call the press! LOL! you rightwingers are such pathetic losers.

[TimeWarp66]

1) I'm a Libertarian not a Republican. You want to label that "right-winger" knock yourself out.

2) She has no degree in economics, yet she speaks as though she's fluent in the subject, and all those pesky nobel prize winning free market economists just... didn't know what they were talking about. Fail.

[madashelldude]

She is not speaking about economic theory but social theory and she's not an academic . You want liberal economic theory on the Nobel Prize level you go to Paul Krugman or Joe Stiglitz:

"Klein is not an academic and cannot be judged as one. (...) But Friedman and the other shock therapists were also guilty of oversimplification, basing their belief in the perfection of market economies on models that assumed perfect information."

nytimes . com/2007/09/30/books/review/St­iglitz-t . html

[getplaning]

This is sarcasm, right?

[sam0fisher666]

So Denmark, Iceland Switzerland with their well regulated markets, highly unionized workforce and socialized medicine are communist countries?! You are so full of it it's not even funny! Even though americans bought into this chicago schl BS in the past the propaganda is no longer working: the Reagan legacy is clearly crumbling. It is not the liberals who destroyed it it was conservative deregulation, the fact that US AAA rated bonds cannot be trusted as sound investment around the world.

[malkooth]

@TimeWarp66 What StupidFuck66 doesn't seem to understand Libertarians are Trust Fund Republicans. What an ignorant asswipe.

[antoniomedina20061]

@1000101er Of course you cannot update Friedmans view on the world because he is dead. Therefore he is like a dead philosopher. The problem is that many people who defend corporatism and and neo-conservatism use Miltons ideas to justify their actions.

[vryheid88]

LOL I lived in Switzerland for 2,5 years and can tell you they have virtually no unionized workforce or socialized medicine!

They have a small limited government, most people work self employed, many SME companies. Health insurance is required by law, but you have to pay yourself, or if you work for a company the company pays 50%.

[skipscobie]

brian patrick.how does money not help education? competitive salaries attract better teachers, money provides computers textbooks and funds extracurricular activities like sports, music, art. your argument is simply a lame justification for supporting the side that is draining public money and putting it into the hands of private contractors.