Armchair Leftist Options

If a public option for health care is considered arch-leftist Socialism, then I may just be the Baadher-Meinhoff gang because I think they should be nationalizing, or offering a nationalized option for, a whole slew of other industries. Let's look at a few:

• The Telecommunications Industry - Mark Twain may have said that "Everybody talks about the weather, but nobody does anything about it".  Well everybody moans endlessly about the details of their cellular voice messaging plans and text plans and who has the best service and blah blah blah Verizon this, AT&T that, and nobody certainly does anything about them.  These meaningless details are the useless offal of life.  Think of the time saved from people's lives if there were only one company, a resurrected Ma Bell monopoly, that could provide digital transmissions to all.  Think of the coverage, yet without the corrupt monopoly of the private industry and within control of the population at large.
• Oil and Gas - I'm going to go all Hugo Chavez on people with this one, but we're in a big old deficit right now, and look who has lots and lots and lots of money and doesn't really need it; Exxon and friends.  And without money, they wouldn't be able to lobby against public transportation and fuel efficiency standards.  It's a pretty obvious one but I'm sure there would be random assasinations if anybody tried moving forward on it.
• News & Media - NPR has it's faults and it's Juan Williamses and sometimes they could tell me any lie or get me to drink bleach if they only asked in a sonrous tone, but compared to the rest, they're far above the fray.  Why not toss more money their way and eliminate two network stations in their stead?  And maybe a couple 24 hour news programs while we're at it.

—August 29th, 2009

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