(Palm-Print
Photo by Edward F. Palm)

About Me

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Forest, Virginia, United States
A long time ago, my sophomore English teacher, Father William Campbell, saw something in my writing and predicted that I would someday become a newspaper columnist. He suggested the perfect title for my column--"Leaves of the Palm." Now that I have a little extra time on my hands I've decided to put Father Campbell's prediction to the test. I'm going to start using this blog site not just to reprint opinion pieces I've published elsewhere but to try to get more of my ideas and opinions out there. Feedback is welcome. To find out more about me, please check out my Web site: www.EdwardFPalm.com (Click on any of the photos below for an enlarged view.)

Thursday, April 29, 2010

The Private Sector Unleashed

[The Washington Narrows, looking toward Dye's Inlet, Tracyton, WA, April 29, 2010]
This evening's CBS Evening News reminded me of that great conservative article of faith--to wit, if we just "unleash the private sector" our economy will fix itself.  
      The Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Lehman Brothers must not have been on a very tight leash.  He reportedly claimed over 5 million dollars in compensation before his company went bankrupt.
       Apparently, British Petroleum was not required to invest in a back-up shut-off system for the oil platform now leaking thousands of gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico.  The news report priced such a system at $500,000.  BP's leash, likewise, couldn't have been too tight.
       So much of the populist conservative rhetoric we're hearing these days reminds me of the sort of binary thinking we used to call the either - or fallacy.  To hear the demagogues tell it, either we have a completely unbridled free marketplace or we have socialism.  Frankly, considering what has happened to our economy, and what is now happening to our environment, I think a little socialism would be a very good thing.  --EFP

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Washington Narrows photo is beautiful. River and bay we took that kayak trip on was also beautiful. As to socialism. Single payer Health Care is for me and my social security is great. Sarge