Is it time to nationalize the commons of our nation?

[Billy Burnett]

Poll question: Is it time to nationalize the commons of our nation?

Things like health care, education, fire protection, etc.

[zipplewrath]

1. Disaster insurance, yes

I'm not yet convinced that education needs to be nationalized. It's not that the feds don't have an interest, I'm just not sure that the system needs to be nationalized.

Police and fire don't need to be nationalized anymore than city streets.

Power generation may have a need.

And disaster "insurance" for major floods, earthquakes, and weather calamities.

[Renew Deal]

2. What do you mean by "naitonalize"?

Do you mean 1 central school district and fire service run by the government? Or do you mean that it should be run by a lower level of government?

[muriel_volestrangler]

6. Federally run, I guess

because that's the 'nation'. Maybe they're suggesting that since counties and states can be jerks, all their functions should be run by the nation.

[hedgehog]

3. I voted yes, but it needs a "yes, but..."

Among the problems:

- taking over a multitude of different contracts and pension plans

- coming together on a single national standard for education

- controlling a monolithic police agency (ever hear tell of J. Edger Hoover?)

- Some areas have excellent public agencies, (Buffalo-Erie County Library System, I'm looking at you), others not so much. People will be afraid (and rightly so) of losing what they have.

- Some areas (Amherst, New York) have oodles of money to address virtually non-existent crime, others, (Buffalo, New York) not so much.

The discussion needs to start.

[Peace Patriot]

4. I recced this poll because I think it's a good issue to think about.

But I'm not sure what you mean. Nationalize what? Edited to add: And nationalize how (specific principles, laws, rules, to promote "common good" values)?

Also, I think we need to de-privatize some things that SHOULD BE in "the commons," and once WERE in "the commons"--like our vote counting system and our PUBLIC airwaves--before we can get to square one on larger reforms.

ONE, private, far rightwing-connected corporation--ES&S, which just bought out Diebold--now holds an 80% MONOPOLY on voting machines in the U.S.--machines run on 'TRADE SECRET' code with virtually no audit/recount controls.

That is just a wildly outrageous assault on "the commons." And it, for sure, is why our national political life is such a nutball, rightwing madhouse. And the other reason is the virtual privatization of our public airwaves. All TV/radio airwaves theoretically belong to the public, but not in practice.

Get those things done--especially the first, TRANSPARENT vote counting, the key to all reform--and then we can talk about whether resources like oil, coal, water, forests/watersheds and other vital resources are--or should be legally treated as--the property of the sovereign people of the United States, or whether certain vital industries should be controlled by "we, the people" through our government.

There are measures short of nationalization that should be taken. For instance, ANY business that off-shores jobs should be dismantled--their charters pulled, their assets seized, their imported products banned. Period. End of story. These treasonous bastards who have used our labor, our infrastructure, our taxes, our educational system and our resources to construct huge, powerful transglobal empires, and who then screw us over every way they can, need to be STOPPED.

There are some things that the government does well--when it is allowed to be the government--not a mere adjunct of the corporate powers and the super-rich. The medical systems in France, Scandinavia, England, Canada, and some other places prove that cheap or free government provided health care works and is far, far, FAR better than an exclusively private system operated for profit. We are the disgrace of the world, in this respect. CUBA provides better medical care than we do.

Oil is nationalized in numerous countries--from Norway to Venezuela. This works extremely well for the benefit of the people. Private industry can participate. It does not own the oil and has no "right" to all of the profits.

During the "New Deal" era, government built roads, bridges, hospitals, libraries, schools, town halls, and all sorts of other infrastructure very efficiently, and with life-saving benefit to the unemployed. A de-corporatized government could do this again. And vital programs like Social Security and the U.S. Postal Service have always been well-run (until recently) --efficient, cheap and absolutely essential to the "common good" as well as to our sense of togetherness as a nation.

I am greatly worried about food production. Corporate Ag has done great damage to soils, to water quality, to the nutritional quality of foods, to crop diversity and seed diversity, and to the health and viability of farming communities. Would I want to see food production nationalized? Not if it mean more "bigness"--i.e., the government pushing pesticides, instead of Monsanto pushing pesticides. But if it meant REAL reform--focused on organic agriculture and a true "green" revolution, on principles of biodiversity, LOCAL distribution and small farming entities--if that's what nationalization meant, then I would be for it. France is a good model for this. They protect their farmers in order to have fresh organic food for everybody. As with medicine, profit should be secondary or no consideration at all. It is too important. It is, indeed, a national security issue.

There is an interesting story about French hospitals. Doctors from England were visiting France to study their health care system. They toured a hospital, and, after they toured the hospital kitchen, they asked the administrator, "But where are your refrigerators? How do you keep food fresh, to feed your patients?" The administrator stared at them a moment, not understanding the question, and replied, "But we don't need refrigerators. We wouldn't think of giving our patients anything but fresh organic produce right off the farm!"

Everybody in the country pays a very small insurance fee, and everybody gets good medical care--including, if they are hospitalized, NON-CORPORATE, NON-'PRESERVED,' NON-FROZEN-THEN-UNFROZEN, NON-GLUE-PARADING-AS-FOOD food. Fresh off the farm!

THAT would be a great "nationalization" result!

[Billy Burnett]

7. Thank you for taking the time to post your thoughts. Excellent post.

:thumbsup: :thumbsup:

[Romulox]

5. Americans are supposed to be in a cut-throat economic "competition" with one another from 9-5

And then we're supposed to come home and build barns for one another and raise each other's children (remember SOS Clinton's book? :eyes: ).