"...because it wasn't done by gangsters like Pfizer and approved by our toothless and servile FDA."

Hey! I used to work for Pfizer!

...yeah, okay, you're even more right than you know.

THE US IS NOT A FREE MARKET ECONOMY! 42% OF THE GDP IS GOVERNMENT SPENDING! That is not something seen in free market economies.

The solution: Cut government spending...

"That is not something seen in free market economies."

Which ones would those be?

"A high portion of small businesses fail in the first year - true. But does that small business are on balance a net drain on the economy? How could this be demonstrated?"

By demonstrating that even in years of growth, more jobs are lost in the small business sector than added to the economy.

"Many truly original thinkers would have no chance of convincing some bureaucrats or a government committee than their idea might have merit."

It seems odd then that green tech start-ups have to rely on government funding to have any chance at making it because the private sector isn't getting it done. Indeed, most countries outside the US make extensive use of industrial policy because the market stays away from investing in cutting edge technologies that might fail. The capital that went to making Facebook came from venture capital firms established by the CIA, a government bureaucracy...

Why does the auto industry continually drag its feet on improving technology so that cars get better gas mileage? Why did the record companies try to crush file sharing mp3 technology in its infancy? Why have new drug patents been on a steady decline despite all the resources at their disposal to invest in R & D? Why do companies reflexively cut costs instead of investing in capital replacement and technology upgrades to make better products?

Fasces++++++++
We need more private sector and less government.

Facebook's initial funding came from Peter Theil, former CEO of PAYPAL, the second round came from Accel Partners which I am pretty sure was not started by the CIA. It's manager James Breyer might have previously had some connection with a venture capital firm which was started by the CIA, but this link seems tenuous and irrelevant. Facebook was not government funded. Facebook had no shortage of private companies wanting to invest money.
Government certainly does have an important role, especially for endeavors which are deemed unprofitable by the private sector but are nonetheless important, but I would have to rely on the government for all source of innovation.

Typo... but I would not want to rely on the government as the soul source of innovation.

Government has never been an effective source of innovation.
I remember that village idiot SantaClausewitz trying to say that government funded all the inventions since 1800.

The escalator, the safety razor we all use today, the radio, the vacuum cleaner, the air conditioner, the airplane, the lightbulb, the television, sonar, cameras, the automobile, the motion picture camera, the zipper, velcro, pyrex for baking, stainless steel, the arc welder, the toaster, frozen food (fast freezing), self-winding watch, spiral notebook, liquid fueled rockets, the aerosol can, the credit card, the car radio, super glue, VCR, power steering, the bar code, teflon, the transistor, the integrated circuit, the personal computer and on and on and on.

All invented by the private sector.

Of course the socialist morons on the forum say "if you received school education everything you did afterward was done by the government."

Such is the reasoning of mental midgets.

TC - How many times have you insisted that people provide a direct source for their references?? And yet if you do provide an unsubstantiated quote, we're all expected to go and look for the source of it. Good of you to be so fair old chap.

Amazing. Yet again someone who may be genuinely interested in what you've posted and all you can do is abuse them for your laziness in not bothering to post a source or to even spell the OP correctly. Why on earth do so many people have you muted? I can't understand it myself when your such an open inviting guy.

PJ mansfield, are you such a total idiot that you don't know that the wright brothers invented the airplane.

My God, where do these morons come from?

PJ, type in any one of the inventions I attribute to the private sector and prove me wrong.

I love to give a fool errands.

TC, did I make a single reference to any of your long list of inventions?!? I merely commented on the fact that you made an incredibly long quote as your opening statement without a reference and that you spelt the OP wrong, how is that me disputing your inventions...? Yet again you pick and choose what you respond to, as you do with every single thread you make, hence why I don't usually bother replying. More fool me for being sucked back in! Note, this is me replying to your statement - not ignoring it as you usually do.

P.S. I'm sure you do love to give a fool errands. All those employees at your business must love you!

Note - just in case you're still too thick to understand, this is in response to you quoting the opening of Carl Shramm's book without referencing him, so that we had to go and look for it ourselves!

"Nice pathetic attempts at personal attacks. Another misfire from another wannabe bourgeois parasite who is frustrated he can't join their ranks so he descends into Paleo-libertarian conspiracy theorizing and warmed over Hayekian drivel. "

Wrong. I was a paleo-libertarian conspiracy theorist long before I was a wannabe bourgeois parasite. Please get your chronology straight.

"Ohio State gets 590 million out of its 5 billion dollar budget from the "taxpayers of Ohio"."

Plus another $376M from "Other Government". And that $833M in 'student fees' mostly comes from loans underwritten by taxpayers. Of the overall $4.75B budgeted expenditures, only $1.49B is categorized as "Instructional and General". So yes, most or nearly all of your grad student stipend comes from the taxpayers of Ohio (and elsewhere).

"Apparently working for a paycheck is "mooching" while being a failed businessman getting tax write-offs and other subsidies is honest work. Figures."

I'll stack a day of my honest work against one of yours any day. And as for tax write-offs and subsidies, while you're enjoying your stipend and living off the real labors of others, I'm paying over a third of my very meager income in taxes to support government workers and all other sorts of ne'er do wells. If you can explain to me where these fantastic tax breaks are that I'm missing out on, I'd appreciate it - I could really use the money.

"And heaven forbid we ever lose the valuable contributions the computer service industry provides..."

Gosh. Apparently you understand my industry better than I do. Tell me, how much should I be charging my customers, and how do you arrive at that figure? Job costing is not my forte, so I could really use your help on this.

"or overcharging people for installations that any primate with thumbs could do."

If any primate with thumbs could do it, then that primate has no one to blame for getting 'ripped off' by getting charged more than they feel like paying but him/herself. I change my own oil, replace my own air filters, spark plugs, etc. on my car for just this reason even though I'm certainly no skilled auto mechanic.

Newsflash-
Pj Mansfield claims Bread was invented by the government since documentation to the contrary was not submitted.
Newsflash.

"most countries outside the US make extensive use of industrial policy because the market stays away from investing in cutting edge technologies that might fail."

Venture capitalists invest in 'cutting edge technologies that might fail' all the time. Solyndra got its start with private capital investments. I seem to recall you complaining elsewhere that this was 'ineffecient' and 'market anarchy'. Now you're complaining that they're not investing in the things you like. (Free hint: it's probably because they've spent a lot more time looking into it than you have and realized that it was a bad investment)

"Why does the auto industry continually drag its feet on improving technology so that cars get better gas mileage?"

Because more technology means higher cost, which means that fewer people will be able to buy their cars.

"Why did the record companies try to crush file sharing mp3 technology in its infancy?"

Because like all corporate socialists, they were eager to smash the competition with the power of the state.

"Why do companies reflexively cut costs instead of investing in capital replacement and technology upgrades to make better products? "

Because money is not infinite, and costs have to be cut in order to keep the product affordable to the customers. There's not much point to making the best, most [insert politically correct business value] widget known to man at a price no one can afford. You know, if you took a few business classes, you wouldn't have to ask so many of these questions.

Paraphrasing Jimmy Connor's comments about New York City

Tolstoy may not like me, but I sure like Tolstoy!!!!

+++++++++

Apparently in your business class you learn that if government provides a service and people pay for said service, it's still "mooching". And of course, teaching and researching is not actually labor and I guess they should work for free. And Ohio State doesn't bring in tons of out of state money and provide research facilities and equipment for private corporations. Compared to the investment the "taxpayers" make in educational services, the educational services pays it back in droves.

Why the libertarian visceral hatred for education I have no idea. It portends well for the future of their ideal society of ignoramuses.

I have still yet to meet a Ron Paulie who wasn't some self-satisfied computer networker or programmer who thought they were an economics PhD.

"Tell me, how much should I be charging my customers, and how do you arrive at that figure?"

I arrived at the figure from that the fact that computer recycling firms charge a fraction of what Best Buy does for their ineffective $200 optimization and virus removal services, and the fact that these cheaper firms still admittedly overcharge for these simple services that take minutes to do. My wife worked for a computer recycling and repair company, so see I have anecdotal bullshit evidence too.

@TC: I am going to have to take everyone else's side on this one:

You and Krellin spend to much time insulting your opponents in political debates. I find an argument is much more effective when your refuting their ideas rather then throwing insults...

If you really are here to 'educate' us on the glory of capitalism and dangers of socialism then act like a real teacher (aka not a union backed one)

Don't call a student a retard just because he got an answer wrong, correct his mistake.

If you do this then maybe everyone one will stop muting you and start taking you seriously...

just food for thought.

Fasces,
I could care less who mutes me.
"Retard?"
You must be talking about someone else.
I don't correct mistake.
I state how things are.
If another adult is too stupid or obstinate to realize the way things are I have utterly no use for them and simply wish them good luck as they stagger blindly through life.

If my viewpoints are totally irrelevant.
If my viewpoints have no merit.
If my viewpoints are so ludicrous that it is plain for everyone with a brain to see then riddle me this....
Why don't the people who know they are right mute me?
Why do the people who know they are right and are confident that I'm totally wrong even bother to reply to any of my threads.
As far as the glory of capitalism and the dangers of socialism if you need an education on that I dare say you are already too far gone for my reasoning to affect you.
You will have to learn through the school of hard knocks as most idiots do.

I muted Krellin months ago, and if you spend your time reading his stupidity that is your problem.

So if your not here trying to educate us on the glory of capitalism, then why bother posting at all?

You are here (assuming your not a troll) to try to prove that capitalism is the best. However it makes it difficult for people to believe you when your call them retards...

Also I am afraid to say I am with Putin on this one.

The third thing we were taught in economics (first being scarcity and second being opportunity cost) was economics resources.

Economic resources are divided into 3 different groups:
Natural, Capital and Human (with Human being divided into Labour and Entrepreneurship)

The next thing we were taught was how to value the economic resources. I will skip Natural and Capital because they are irrelevant to this discussion.

Human resources are valued based on a certain few aspects. Since I learnt this over a year ago I may be forgetting a few of them but the ones I remembered:
Quantity: The larger the Labour force, the larger the economic out put.
Longevity: The longer they live, the more hours they will spend working.
Education: The better educated they are, the more complex the tasks they can do and the better they can work, meaning they will more efficiently spend time.

There was maybe one or to others that I forget but it doesn't matter. The point is an economically rich country generally has a highly educated and healthy work force.

If people are sick their entire life and die at 43, how can they do anything that benefits the economy?
If people don't know how to read, then how can they be taught how to do work?

Its basic economics and is the biggest cause for market failures in absolute right wing economies.

This is why I support free health care and free education and will never vote for any politician who does not support them.

Fasces, Why do you care what I post?

"Free" healthcare.
What kind of individual is stupid enough to think that healthcare could ever be "free."
Amazing what people post.

"Fasces, Why do you care what I post?"
As a fellow right wing extremist I was just offering advice, since you post enough that if all your posts were logical people (webdip users) might actually become more right wing.

""Free" healthcare.
What kind of individual is stupid enough to think that healthcare could ever be "free."
Amazing what people post."
Nothing is ever free, any economist gets that. By free health care I mean health care that is paid by tax payers instead of patients and will serve someone regardless of class, race, age and gender.

Interesting statement from "Making Poor Nations Rich".

We can look at immigrant groups from two different countries-one rich and one poor-and see what causes the gaps between their incomes. Germany is much richer than Haiti. If the difference in incomes existed because Germans are better educated or smarter than Haitians, then we would expect German immigrants to the United States to be much richer than Haitian immigrants to the United States. But Haitians and German immigrants in the United States have much closer income levels than do Haitians and Germans in their home countries. It is not the people that differ it is the institutions. When Haitians enter an entrepreneurial economy they enjoy success that the do not enjoy in Haiti.

Of course the subject of this thread is entrepreneurship, but when socialists and marxists see something they can't refute they try every tactic they can to silence the thread.
Fortunately that doesn't work with me.
I wonder why they just don't ignore my threads?

Fasces you are no fellow of mine.
You should post what you mean instead of something stupid.