GOP South Carolina debate

On Thursday night, five Republican presidential candidates faced off in the first debate of the 2012 election cycle. The debate took place in Greenville, South Carolina. The state of South Carolina will hold the nation's second primary election (and the first primary in the South) sometime in February of next year.

The participants in the debate were: Former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty, 50; former CEO of Godfather's Pizza Herman Cain, 65; former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson, 58; current Congressman from Texas Ron Paul, 74; and former Senator from Pennsylvania Rick Santorum, 52.

Let's do a quick rundown of the candidates:

Tim Pawlenty - Served two full terms as governor, but did not win a majority in either election; seriously considered as a possible running mate by John McCain in 2008; received an "A" grade from the Cato Institute; known for balancing budgets without raising taxes despite facing massive deficits.

Herman Cain - Was briefly chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City; newspaper columnist and radio talk-show host; opposes abortion even in the cases of rape and/or incest; colon and liver cancer survivor; the only black Republican candidate running for president this year.

Gary Johnson - Governor of New Mexico from 1995 to 2003; considered a libertarian Republican; was a successful businessman prior to entering politics; supports the legalization of marijuana and used marijuana "medicinally" as recently as 2008; climbed Mount Everest; a major tax-cutter.

Ron Paul - Ran unsuccessfully for the Republican presidential nomination in 2008; also known as a libertarian Republican; considered one of the main inspirations for the Tea Party movement; opposed the war in Iraq; worked as an OB-GYN for many years; can raise funds from individual donors like few candidates.

Rick Santorum - Served in the House of Representatives for two terms before serving in the Senate for two terms; was crushed in his reelection bid in 2006 by roughly 18 points; known for being very socially conservative; absolutely despised by the Left; endorsed Mitt Romney in 2008.

Read the rest:

http://www.examiner.com/political-buzz-in-orlando/rating-the-debate-republican-presidential-candidates-face-off-south-carolina

People seem to have misinterpreted my opinion.
The special privileges of the really big players in the market granted by the government is all because of lobbying.
In my country we use the word corporatism for the negociation-model between workers and companies.
It "tries" to realise "proportional representation" on both sides to reach compromises.
So a free-market economy & the corporatist model are perfectly combinable but certainly not the same thing.

>>35
I did not imply any of that.
monopolies and oligopolies in cartel are more efficient because they have the size to have economies of scale. Some sectors are more efficient when having a monopolistic marketform.

But at the same time I don't believe such sectors should be under control of private companies.
Why would the government run a company less efficient? Doesn't government-ownership imply a monopoly?

In Western-Europe (not the stupid britfags ofc), the government has a monopoly on education and healthcare.
I am not joking.
Tuition = 100 euro in my cuntry

One might say that big companies are beneficial in terms of research and development...
In that case you can explain me why companies tend to show free-rider behaviour concerning the adaptation of state-financed research?


financial crisis... I think we can all agree that a few bankers were very greedy, some were plain stupid and most of them are simply clueless.
The no-prime/subprime mortgage crisis is pretty much caused by greed --> abnormal risktaking, against everything you learn in economics classes --> with the idea of the accumulation of massive bonusses.

Isn't this market failure?
Why did these 'free-market' advocates suddenly cry for government intervention? (was the invisible hand pleasuring itself or something?)


>>35 tl;dr -->
>"Remove the privileges and there would still be big businesses, just only where they actually do a better job."

Privileges are obtained because of the blending of public and private intrests.
Like I said before, politicians have mandates for big companies & prominent businessmen (lol women.. yah right) become politicians.