Some ask who belongs in 'ownership society' (responsibility & risk)

[rodeodance]

Edwards has some critical comments in the article also.


......."In the past, there was too much of an assumption of rationality," says Robert Shiller, a behavioral economist at Yale University. "You have to be realistic about what people can do."........

Some ask who belongs in 'ownership society'

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=676&ncid=676&e=9&u=/usatoday/20050322/ts_usatoday/someaskwhobelongsinownershipsociety
Tue Mar 22, 6:20 AM ET

By Jill Lawrence, USA TODAY

In President Bush (news - web sites)'s vision of an "ownership society," people would have more choices and assume more risk in nearly every part of their lives. The result, in theory: They would save more, own more and rely less on the government - even if they're elderly, low-income or both.

"I think all public policy, or as much public policy as possible, ought to encourage people to own something," Bush says. The more people own, he adds, "the more they'll have a stake in the future of this country." (Related item: Some decisions easier to 'own', poll finds)

In practice, skeptics say, Bush's version of an "ownership society" would mean "you're on your own" - unless you are well-heeled, well-informed and already an owner. "It's a wonderful phrase," says former Clinton Labor secretary Robert Reich, a professor of social and economic policy at Brandeis University in Massachusetts. "But in fact, it's going to further concentrate ownership in fewer and fewer hands."......

[fasttense]

1. It always sounded to me like Smith's "lazifare" economics

that brought us sharecroppers, child labor, prison labor and corporate owned villages. Also lets not forget it gave us starvation during the potato famine in Ireland. Glad we are going back to the old ways of dealing with the economy.

[Squeech]

2. Horrible

What could having "a stake in the future of this country" possibly mean if the actual ownership of it is completely privatized?

To speak of "the country" already presupposes a collective social structure. I want my country to do certain things, and not even for me specifically, but for *the general welfare* in the Constitutional sense. I want people not to die in the streets. I want people to be secure in their homes. I want my neighbors to be educated, at least well enough to get my jokes. I don't want to have to "own" my own hospital, my own police force, my own school, just to ensure all of the above.

But increasingly it looks like I am going to need to hire my own police force to defend my rights against Tom Delay's police force.