NO

1 We'll remember this the next time you have a heart attack and use a drug discovered and tested at UNC-CH. Or, the next time you drink water that is not filled with pesticides and hog waste. I don't agree with keeping any building money permanently, but I also don't agree with going backwards just to save a few bucks per person. We've seen just how the private system works when given free reign thanks to the Republic Party being in control in Washington. Oil and Insurance companies rake in record profits while real wages drop, benefits decrease, and services disappear. Utopia for a Republic? Aristocracy. It sounds like your a worker, so welcome to the peasant class my friend.

2 I hope they build that research center here soon in Kannapolis since I need a job. Sounds like a tech guy is what they need.

3 Robert, your view of people is horribly depressing and fatalistic. You assume that if government does not do something then it simply will not be done. That says that people in a capitalist society will do nothing -- they will not discover or research drugs, and they will only make pesticides that kill people. I'm sorry that you are so depressed and have such a poor view of free people. And your "real wages" line is total crap, utterly unsupported by reality, and you know it. Arbitrator? Stop encouraging them!

4 Sorry Ogre, But take a look at our health insurance - capitalist society has driven it into the ground to the point that 48 million Americans have no insurance. Including 50% that work, but have no health care benefits, so real wages are not crap. But, you already know that. Real wages would allow people to eat AND see the doctor. I'm not depressed at all, thankfully the Federal Government does support research that private companies would never fund. You forget that when capitalism had its way, millions died each year from work accidents (I just saw a recent stat that 36,000 brakemen died every year on trains at the turn of the century), people starved, children spent all week in the sweat shop. If you think it is so different today, just look around the world. And, don't forget the wonders brought to us by cigarette companies, asbestos manufacturers, and pharm companies - all of whom knowingly killed people for the sake of profits. Not even a right-wing nutbag can believe that corporations don't need oversight. Too many examples proving the opposite.

5 Wow. You may not think you are depressed, but you do have a horribly depressing, fatalistic view of everyone else but yourself. Based on your posts, you actually believe that nothing will happen without the federal government. You believe that companies will willingly kill millions of people just because they can get away with it. And as for your claim that capitalism has made health insurance unavailable, that's verifiable wrong. The reason health care is not available for so many people is because government regulation has made it that way. I want to buy insurance that will provide me catastrophic coverage for major accidents and hospitalization only. Government will not allow me to buy that coverage. Government will only permit me to purchase complete and total insurance covering AIDS, depression, alcoholism, mental health, acupuncture, and tons of other crap I DON'T WANT. That's why insurance costs so much -- GOVERNMENT and only government.

6 Wait, you think it was the government that was behind the law that makes you buy EVERY KIND OF insurance? You don't think the $150 million a year that certain insurance industry groups spend on lobbying was MAYBE, JUST MAYBE used to push, write, and pass these kinds of laws? You think the insurance industry is so kind, they want to sell you a nice small policy at low-cost, but those mean men in D.C. MAKE them sell you the all-in-one at 10 times the cost? Please. "You believe that companies will willingly kill millions of people just because they can get away with it." .....yeah, I think that is pretty much proven. Cigarettes, Enron, Benzene, Asbestos, Arsenic, Mercury, PCBs - the list goes on and on. No matter how brainwashed you are, you can't serious believe that today's companies would police their own pollution and remove carcinogens if the government wasn't forcing them to, right? There is one example, Tylenol I think, that people bring up over and over. But, just look at all the industry's asking Bush for cover from their bad behavior. Capitalism without regulation is a stupid idea. Capitalism with regulation is a great idea and what helped make our country the greatest in the world. Have you ever read The Jungle, or any of the other reports about working conditions before government regulation? Or, have you traveled to any third world countries or seen the reports about slavery, forced labor, child labor, and all the other things that go on in third world countries? Or, how about the incredibly high death rate among illegal immigrant workers right here in the U.S. That is the best proof that companies do not care at all about their workers, the fact that they kill off illegal immigrants because they are "disposable".

7 Hold on, let me go check ... Yup, the insurance industry didn't pass any laws -- only legislatures do that. By stating your belief that companies kill people because they can shows that I cannot have an intelligent debate with you. Heck, you have clearly stated that you would kill me if you could get away with it.

8 Loud rather than right. Corporations have and will continue to kill people in the name of profit. Not every corporation, but enough that laws are necessary to regulate them. Look at the top 20 companies to work with from Fortune. These are companies that make money and yet still manage to pay living wages with health and retirement benefits. The other companies like cigarette manufacturers are killing people for MORE profit, not just for profit. When, exactly, did I say I would kill you if I could get away with it? Loud, rather than right.

9 Oh, I see, it's not YOU that would kill me, just everyone else on the entire planet. That doesn't strike you as an odd position to hold? That doesn't seem to you to be utterly fatalistic? You have proposed that only you (and government with force, run by "the right people") are good and everyone else is bad and evil. That's what I'm talking about when I say you have an absolutely horrible view of people... other than yourself and the "right" people running government, of course. Open your mind some day and look around. You might find that people are nicer than you give them credit for.

10 Common neocon misconception, corporations are not people. They do not have the rights of people, they are not "persons". People are nice, my neighbors are nice, my Republican Dad is nice, the people at last weekends chili cookoff were nice, lots of people are nice. Many corporations, and again you choose to ignore nuance because...well, you're a neocon, MANY corporations care more about profits than human life. You've never denied that Enron, cigarettes, asbestos producers, etc have put profits before people. You can't. It's clear, they have.

11 I see. So these corporations, that are not people, that are not run by people, are evil automations that kill people whenever they get the chance, just because they can. No actual people would actually do this, just the evil corporations. You know, I formed a corporation just last year. I have yet to see it launch itself into violence and killing. I shall hide under my desk just in case it does. Someone, quick, please regulate my corporation before it kills me. Robert, do you really not see how utterly insane that sounds? Corporations kill, but people are nice. Where did the corporations come from?