What Industries Should the US Nationalize?

[Mark1031]

Financial.
Lately it seems that there are a lot of calls to nationalize major industries in the US. The obvious one is the banking and financial sector. We have Bear Stearns, Freddie and Fannie, investment banks borrowing from the Fed. Now I'm not criticizing this I think that it was actually necessary even though I own SKF and a banking collapse would help me. But what really bothers me is this :

Fannie Mae CEO Pay Cut 15 Pct to $12.2 Mln in 2007. $12 million for what is essentially a federal job, as there was always an implicit guarantee from the government. If an industry or particular company in that industry is too important to the US or global economy to fail then the taxpayers essentially owned the company and the executive compensation should be on the federal scale, let's say no more than the POTUS makes.

Energy
So all the bubba’s in the country are pissed about gas prices. Great, don't blame the instability Bush aggravated in the Middle East along with rising demand, blame the fact that we don't let the oil companies drill anywhere they want in the US. Now I personally am not that concerned with offshore drilling as long as it's NIMBY. You want to screw up the Florida coast go ahead. But, what the idiots of the world don't realize is that this will have almost no effect on oil prices even in 20 years because it's not “OUR” oil , it's the oil of the company that produces it and they will sell it at market value to whoever they want to. Of course one way it would be “OUR” oil is if we nationalized the oil companies and sold domestically produced product at recovery costs. So are the bubba’s of the country up for that.

Health
Something is going to happen with this one. Essentially if you're sick you can get this product via a government subsidy while insurance companies take only the healthiest people along with a 30% overhead and whatever their profit margin is. This is going to change assuming Obama is elected.

IMO we should make a list of companies/Industries that are too big to be allowed to fail financially and are thus backed by the US government. If said companies exist then the government should just take them over now rather than letting investors and executives reap the short-term benefits of the next bubble while the taxpayers pick up the mess.

 

[Theige]

Cutting CEO pay of Freddie or Fannie would just lead to a more incompetent person taking that role.

The financial industry is not going to be nationalized. You could nationalize Fannie and Freddie, but I don't think it would ever go beyond that. Nor should it.

Energy should not be nationalized, but clean energy, wind, solar, should be nourished (tax breaks and whatnot). Along with Nuclear power. And drilling should be allowed offshore and in ANWR

Health care should not be nationalized, but those in poverty should receive government health care. I'm pretty sure this is already how things are, and as it seems there is still a problem these health benefits should be extended more.

The tax-payers shouldn't be picking up any mess. Thats part of a capitalist system, weak companies fail. And strong companies succeed.

 

[Mark1031]

And drilling should be allowed offshore and in ANWR

Why? WHat effct do you think this will this have?

 

[Elrohir]

You want the guys who ran the Katrina cleanup to take over the Financial, Healthcare, and Energy industries of the United States? Are you insane?

America sucks a socialism. Let's let the businesses be businesses, and the government by the government. I don't think mixing the two is a very wise idea.

 

[Theige]

Why? WHat effct do you think this will this have?

An increase in production of oil in the U.S. A bit less reliance on foreign oil.

Its not going to be huge, but it will help. If congress announced today that we would drill in ANWR and offshore, oil would drop 5% guaranteed, today.

Our oil situation will probably be even worse in 7 - 10 years when this production will really get going, so we better start now.

Thats not to say conservation isn't just as important. Taxes should be levied to make gas $5 a gallon, to ensure the all out drive for electric cars continues. And to change consumer behavior, as has been happening over the last year.

 

[Mark1031]

You want the guys who ran the Katrina cleanup to take over the Financial, Healthcare, and Energy industries of the United States? .

No I want the guys who ran the Apollo program and won WWII to take over.

 

[Godwynn]

No I want the guys who ran the Apollo program and won WWII to take over.

Which do you think is more likely?

 

[Theige]

You want the guys who ran the Katrina cleanup to take over the Financial, Healthcare, and Energy industries of the United States? Are you insane?

America sucks a socialism. Let's let the businesses be businesses, and the government by the government. I don't think mixing the two is a very wise idea.

Thankfully, those guys will be out of office soon

Republicans working in the government just suck, in general. All the smart ones are in the private sector and they appoint incompetent people to government positions, in my opinion, just to prove a point

 

[Mark1031]

An increase in production of oil in the U.S. A bit less reliance on foreign oil.

What does that mean "reliance on foreign oil"? There is no law requiring domestically produced oil to be sold here or for production to not be manipulated for profit. It would have almost no effect at all on oil prices now or in 7-10 yrs.

 

[Mark1031]

Which do you think is more likely?

It depends what party is in charge.

 

[JerichoHill]

An increase in production of oil in the U.S. A bit less reliance on foreign oil.

Its not going to be huge, but it will help. If congress announced today that we would drill in ANWR and offshore, oil would drop 5% guaranteed, today.

Our oil situation will probably be even worse in 7 - 10 years when this production will really get going, so we better start now.

Thats not to say conservation isn't just as important. Taxes should be levied to make gas $5 a gallon, to ensure the all out drive for electric cars continues. And to change consumer behavior, as has been happening over the last year.

No. It wouldn't. Drilling will cause no long term changes in price. The energy industry and the energy regulators both agree on this point.

 

[History_Buff]

Health Care, because it works better that way.

Also Energy, because of the massive success Norway has had with it. I wish we'd had the sense to do that here as well.

 

[Theige]

What does that mean "reliance on foreign oil"? There is no law requiring domestically produced oil to be sold here or for production to not be manipulated for profit. It would have almost no effect at all on oil prices now or in 7-10 yrs.

The US imports over half of its oil. Domestically produced oil would almost 100% be sold in the US. And the companies reaping the profits would be almost 100% American.

You see how the price of oil reacts to every little bit of news every day, don't you?

Why do you think news like this would have no effect on the price of oil?

And surely, an increase in production, however small on a global scale, would lower prices. ANWR is estimated to be able to produce 1 mil barrels a day in 10 years. At current consumption that is about 5% of what we use. If we keep the price of oil high, and make it even higher through taxes, people will start to use less, as has been happening. With electric cars, hybrids, the near zero sales of big SUV's. In ten years, we should be consuming less oil than we are now, so that 1 million barrels a day could represent a higher % of our overall consumption than it does now, and would be of even greater benefit.

 

[Mark1031]

Why do you think news like this would have no effect on the price of oil?

Because...

The energy industry and the energy regulators both agree on this point.

 

[Cutlass]

The US imports over half of its oil. Domestically produced oil would almost 100% be sold in the US. And the companies reaping the profits would be almost 100% American.

You see how the price of oil reacts to every little bit of news every day, don't you?

Why do you think news like this would have no effect on the price of oil?

And surely, an increase in production, however small on a global scale, would lower prices. ANWR is estimated to be able to produce 1 mil barrels a day in 10 years. At current consumption that is about 5% of what we use. If we keep the price of oil high, and make it even higher through taxes, people will start to use less, as has been happening. With electric cars, hybrids, the near zero sales of big SUV's. In ten years, we should be consuming less oil than we are now, so that 1 million barrels a day could represent a higher % of our overall consumption than it does now, and would be of even greater benefit.

Korea, Japan, and China are closer to ANWR than nearly all of the US.

 

[Cutlass]

Single payer healthcare seems inevitable because the current system is unsustainable. But it will always have private aspects to it.

The defense industry could stand nationalization. The costs are just too far out of control.

Public utilities and transit don't fair too badly publicly owned in comparison. But there's no need to nationalize the utilities and it would probably do no good.

For the rest, it simply doesn't work.

 

[Cheezy the Wiz]

If there were any American "industry" that should be nationalized, it is energy. Unless we're including non-industrial things, in which case healthcare and medicine, too.

The defense industry could stand nationalization. The costs are just too far out of control.

Do you mean armaments and equipment production? I wonder what that would do.

 

[scy12]

What would be the benefit if you nationalize it ?

 

[Cutlass]

If there were any American "industry" that should be nationalized, it is energy. Unless we're including non-industrial things, in which case healthcare and medicine, too.



Do you mean armaments and equipment production? I wonder what that would do.

It would put a stop to "cost-plus contracting". Under cost-plus, if the agreed rate of profit is 6%, then if something costs $10, then the profit is $0.60. But if the cost is $100, then the profit is $6. So it simply makes more sense for the contractor to maximize production costs as a method of maximizing total revenue. Since the rate of profit is fixed, that's their target.

The US has greatly capable weapons systems, except we simply cannot afford a full inventory of them any longer. The size of the US military is going to be forced down by our ability to afford equipment.

 

[Riffraff]

What would be the benefit if you nationalize it ?

For instance, a doctor treating a paitent automatically has a conflict of interests if he makes money by prescribing certain medications. This leads to bad, expensive treatments.