OVERCHARGING DOES APPLY TO THE UTILITIES, WHO ARE SUPPOSED TO BE REGULATED BY “COMMISSIONS”. SOMETIMES IT SEEMS LIKE THE FOX IS GUARDING THE HENHOUSE, THOUGH! BUT REGULAR FREE-ENTERPRISE BUSINESSES SHOULD BE REGULATED BY COMPETITION. I CAN SHOP MY AUTO AND HOME INSURANCE AMONG HUNDREDS OF COMPANIES, SO UNLESS ALL COMPANIES MEET REGULARLY AND AGREE ON RATES, IF MY RATE IS TOO HIGH, I GO ELSEWHERE!
Rosie is right. These “watchdog” consumer groups are all under Bush and Cheney’s control. The consumer lobbyists are in the pocket of the Republicans. Time for change!
PS. Give Bush some credit, though. There were fewer hurricanes this year. Since Katrina was his fault, we should applaud his lack of storms in ’07.
It is normal for companies to use accumulated capital in a monopolistic way. It is normal for them to spend some of it legitmately and illegitmately (and of course via lobbying, a unique mixture of the two) to distort market forces in their favor and to resist complementary efforts by regulators to distort the market.
Markets, especially the big-capital distorted markets of the US, create chaos at home and worldwide as well as fomenting hyper-stimulated technological change, the necessity for two earner families, globalization and objectifcation of labor, resource exhaustion, pollution and often but not always efficient distribution of goods. They are probably a good thing compared to the creeping Stalinism of state-directed economies such as those that failed in Eastern Europe and even those that are succeeding in Asia, especially in China, but time will tell.
As Rosie points out, the current regime, which has hijacked our government and military to serve the interests of the oil industry (including the Saudi royal family and other Middle Eastern dictators with Chavez and the mullahs in Iraq getting an unexpected boost and free-ride), has let the deregulation thing go to an extreme. Chaos (and wars of choice) have been the result. Hence the complaints by other commenters about other types of service providers. The actions of the current regime are the flip-side of deregulation–control of the government by commercial enterprises. The Latin Americans, in a nice irony, refer to such behavior as “Neo-Liberalism” although it has been the liberal-haters and -baitersin the US that have pulled off this cute switch to a govenment that neither represents nor serves its own people.
The pendulum will be swinging back in the near future, no matter how much fulminating there is by ardent and learned MBAs, Walmart supporters, and Wall Street/banking elitists. “As ye sow, so shall ye reap”–to put it in terms of that book all these crooks have been hiding behind since 1994.
Anyway, remember the important take-away that these people want you to believe in is “that war is good business. Invest your child or spouse.” And have a nice weekend knowing the end (of the regime) is indeed and solely and entirely on constitutional grounds, near. One year, two weeks, one day—just like in Donnie Darko, except we can’t go back and change everything so this nightmare never happened.
Don’t count your chickens on this regime coming to an end on “constitutional grounds.” A secret plan is in place for a late term war with Iran that thru the expanded power of a war time President will keep this regime in power (much like what is going on in Pakistan).
I was interested to see what sort of comments this story elicited.
I was astonished to see that they melted down into political stonethrowing.
How Robert Hunter fits into Bush’s back pocket is some kind of leap.
Suffice it to say that Mr. Hunter has a personal axe to grind and his numbers don’t always add up.
This is a free country with free speech, but save the politicizing for a proper forum for it, because this isn’t it.
Let’s hear about how people feel about the insurance topics presented, not about their own narrow policical views to one side or the other.
If Hunter is the “Director of Insurance” for the CFA and a former commissioner, I sure hope they are self insured to avoid the companies getting excess profits from CFA. And if he was a commissioner (don’t know which state), he sure must have been an inept, impotent commissioner because the state’s regulations are basically the same. Where was he then?
Anyone who’s worked in the insurance industry for any period of time knows this guy is a kook. He has never made one valid point and relies on techno babble, mis-speak and bends the numbers to back into his fairy tale world of insurance hater(s). At least our industry is market driven, people have a choice of insurance carriers. The Libs must be getting desparate (what a choice..Hilary or Obama) when they choose to voice their political opinions and blame Bush in a stupid insurance blog such as this. Remember, the Libs support HACKs like Mr Hunter (he doesn’t work for free). Talk about a rip-off?
Premium for auto, 2 houses, 2M Umbrella, PAF…$1900 per year. Premium for the ability to watch TV and surf the Net via Comcast…$2160 per year! I hope that Hunter is right cause then my company would actually owe me money every year.
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OVERCHARGING DOES APPLY TO THE UTILITIES, WHO ARE SUPPOSED TO BE REGULATED BY “COMMISSIONS”. SOMETIMES IT SEEMS LIKE THE FOX IS GUARDING THE HENHOUSE, THOUGH! BUT REGULAR FREE-ENTERPRISE BUSINESSES SHOULD BE REGULATED BY COMPETITION. I CAN SHOP MY AUTO AND HOME INSURANCE AMONG HUNDREDS OF COMPANIES, SO UNLESS ALL COMPANIES MEET REGULARLY AND AGREE ON RATES, IF MY RATE IS TOO HIGH, I GO ELSEWHERE!
Rosie is right. These “watchdog” consumer groups are all under Bush and Cheney’s control. The consumer lobbyists are in the pocket of the Republicans. Time for change!
PS. Give Bush some credit, though. There were fewer hurricanes this year. Since Katrina was his fault, we should applaud his lack of storms in ’07.
It is normal for companies to use accumulated capital in a monopolistic way. It is normal for them to spend some of it legitmately and illegitmately (and of course via lobbying, a unique mixture of the two) to distort market forces in their favor and to resist complementary efforts by regulators to distort the market.
Markets, especially the big-capital distorted markets of the US, create chaos at home and worldwide as well as fomenting hyper-stimulated technological change, the necessity for two earner families, globalization and objectifcation of labor, resource exhaustion, pollution and often but not always efficient distribution of goods. They are probably a good thing compared to the creeping Stalinism of state-directed economies such as those that failed in Eastern Europe and even those that are succeeding in Asia, especially in China, but time will tell.
As Rosie points out, the current regime, which has hijacked our government and military to serve the interests of the oil industry (including the Saudi royal family and other Middle Eastern dictators with Chavez and the mullahs in Iraq getting an unexpected boost and free-ride), has let the deregulation thing go to an extreme. Chaos (and wars of choice) have been the result. Hence the complaints by other commenters about other types of service providers. The actions of the current regime are the flip-side of deregulation–control of the government by commercial enterprises. The Latin Americans, in a nice irony, refer to such behavior as “Neo-Liberalism” although it has been the liberal-haters and -baitersin the US that have pulled off this cute switch to a govenment that neither represents nor serves its own people.
The pendulum will be swinging back in the near future, no matter how much fulminating there is by ardent and learned MBAs, Walmart supporters, and Wall Street/banking elitists. “As ye sow, so shall ye reap”–to put it in terms of that book all these crooks have been hiding behind since 1994.
Anyway, remember the important take-away that these people want you to believe in is “that war is good business. Invest your child or spouse.” And have a nice weekend knowing the end (of the regime) is indeed and solely and entirely on constitutional grounds, near. One year, two weeks, one day—just like in Donnie Darko, except we can’t go back and change everything so this nightmare never happened.
You can’t say Donnie Darko!
Don’t count your chickens on this regime coming to an end on “constitutional grounds.” A secret plan is in place for a late term war with Iran that thru the expanded power of a war time President will keep this regime in power (much like what is going on in Pakistan).
I was interested to see what sort of comments this story elicited.
I was astonished to see that they melted down into political stonethrowing.
How Robert Hunter fits into Bush’s back pocket is some kind of leap.
Suffice it to say that Mr. Hunter has a personal axe to grind and his numbers don’t always add up.
This is a free country with free speech, but save the politicizing for a proper forum for it, because this isn’t it.
Let’s hear about how people feel about the insurance topics presented, not about their own narrow policical views to one side or the other.
If Hunter is the “Director of Insurance” for the CFA and a former commissioner, I sure hope they are self insured to avoid the companies getting excess profits from CFA. And if he was a commissioner (don’t know which state), he sure must have been an inept, impotent commissioner because the state’s regulations are basically the same. Where was he then?
Anyone who’s worked in the insurance industry for any period of time knows this guy is a kook. He has never made one valid point and relies on techno babble, mis-speak and bends the numbers to back into his fairy tale world of insurance hater(s). At least our industry is market driven, people have a choice of insurance carriers. The Libs must be getting desparate (what a choice..Hilary or Obama) when they choose to voice their political opinions and blame Bush in a stupid insurance blog such as this. Remember, the Libs support HACKs like Mr Hunter (he doesn’t work for free). Talk about a rip-off?
anything that makes Rosie ill sounds great; bring it on…let’s roll in our profits…hee…hee…hee…hee.
Premium for auto, 2 houses, 2M Umbrella, PAF…$1900 per year. Premium for the ability to watch TV and surf the Net via Comcast…$2160 per year! I hope that Hunter is right cause then my company would actually owe me money every year.