What do the Democrats want in a Presidential candidate in 2020?

Within the past week, I was checking out of a local grocery market. There were about 8 check out registers in the store, but only one had a worker. So, the line crossed the main aisle by the registers, & curved around several display islands, & ended inside a normal shopping aisle. It took forever, & no one got into trouble for it while I was there. I've had many uncomfortable experiences with workers in businesses. I've accompanied friends & family during times when they've had encounters too. Business is no angel. Businesses can be as difficult & selfish & uncompromising as you accuse government of being. Business has a long history of abusing public trust for profit. Your posts attacking government while upholding & defending business, are far too prejudiced & one-sided to have any validity.

 

Yes but you have an option, don't go there any more, at the DMV you do not any options, people can penalize business' with their wallet and move on, with the government they are stuck with crappy service and no where else to go.

Your example clearly displays that.

 

But the answer isn't continual condemnation of the DMV, but rather, finding individuals in the DMV responsive to the situation & willing & able to make the necessary changes to fix it. Conservatives moan & groan & blame & find fault, but really offer few if any answers, other than obliteration of what they don't like. How about some more positive answers?

 

I have a real positive answer reduce government and privatize agencies like DMV, you have a better idea, if not take a hike.

 

The current trend to privatize government agencies is a bad idea. Generally, things just end up being worse than before. The USPS is a good example. Prices have skyrocketed, while service has remained about the same.

 

That's because unless the old school government managers and employees are canned, it still runs as inefficiently as it did before.

Unionized government employees have a no give a damm service attitude that is systemic, they don't care because they don't have to care, you don't like that, take your business elsewhere.

 

Your post makes no sense, simply because those government workers trapped by the privatization process, have all retired by now. The USPS has been privatized for decades, & it just gets more expensive. It's been a private business problem for a long time. Blaming government mismanagement is just a cop-out. If privatization was a real solution, the issues would have been resolved by now.

 

They still have the same Unions they always had and that is a major part of the problem, the I don't care because I work for the government attitude still prevails at the USPS.

 

That is actually not true, the USPS is an "establishment of the executive branch of the Government of the United States", (39 U.S.C. § 201) as it is controlled by presidential appointees and the postmaster general.

Maybe check your facts before making up any more falsehoods.

 

Services have improved immensely over the years and more so with the privatization. I used to sell to the equipment for the sortation systems. They are amazing and how the USPS works is amazing. Their technology is amazing and it has branched out to other markets. Go to FedX or UPS and tell them you want to send a letter to any address in the country and how much they want to charge. Tell them you want them to come to your house everyday and check a little box to see if you have anything to send and how much they will charge you for that. The USPS is like a hybrid still with government influence on it and it is that influence that is bad as in the hiring and firing of people.

 

Government & business are two different types of human institutions. They were developed to serve different needs of society. Both have strong points & weak ones. Since they serve different purposes, they aren't really in competition with each other--or shouldn't be. Communism takes the view that government can serve both purposes better without business. That proved to be a failed idea. Extreme capitalism takes the view that business is capable of doing it all without government. That has failed in important areas where it's been tried as well. Socialism recognizes that both government & business each play important roles in society, & theoretically tries to utilize both to their best advantage. But there are several species of socialism, & several forms end up creating non-democratic, authoritative rule. Only recently has that changed, especially in W Europe, where new "Democratic Socialist" countries have actually succeeded in making socialism a positive system that honors the roles of business & government, while maintaining & respecting human rights as well.

 

Tell that to the Democrats, the Constitution mandates a postal service. AND especially with the change in the law back in the70's or 80's whenever it was and the technology explosion in the USPS they still do an amazing job but the need for that job has been receding for years and trying to make up the revenue shortfall because of that has been weight around their neck.

 

jesus christ, some of these Iowa dems are almost as dumb as members of the republican base.

Sanders, Gay Pete, and Liz all polling ahead of Joe??

Do these Iowa dems actually believe that any of those three has a better shot at defeating the disgraced republican incumbent, commander bone spurs, this fall than Joe???

 

The USPS is only one example. But here's a question. . .without government, who would build infrastructure across the U.S. or your home state or home city? Would private business step in & take on that responsibility if government shut down? If so, why hasn't it already?

 

Well the USPS situation is unique in that it was pretty much a monopoly and then along came UPS and FedX and of course the killer of all email and Twitter and Facebook. People use to send postcards when they traveled. People used to write letters. I used to mail quotes and communications to my customers and the get their orders and send my invoices through the mail. I maybe mail two pieces of stamped mail a year that is because I am trying to get through to someone who is not responded and a letter is so UNIQUE these days it tends to get their attention.

But no one is talking about ending government why the canard? Yes what we can do privately we should because when it is private when there is competition and a profit motive it tends to be more efficient.

 

It's already being done.

 

Where & by whom?

 

What do the Democrats want in a Presidential candidate in 2020?

1: The ability to beat Trump
2: See: 1

 

I'm not against private business, & there's certainly a place for it in any society. But there are things private business isn't proficient in doing well, & frequently private business serves only the owners & managers of that business, while ignoring or abusing the needs or dreams of the workers in that business ultimately responsible for its success. Over time, I've learned that more is accomplished, & more people benefit, when things get done thru cooperation rather than competition. Competition tends to create a few winners & lots of losers. Cooperation tends to reward all who participate in some way or another. In America, competition is hugely overrated as a positive benefit to society, while cooperation is largely underrated. It would benefit America to change that.

 

In Florida, FDOT has privatized a number of expressways to operators such as I-595 Express LLC which designed, built, financed, operates and maintains I-595 between U.S 1 to the East and U.S. 27 to the West.

The primary source of funding for I-595 Express is from 4 convertible bi-directional express toll lanes which have a variable toll rate depending on time of day and number of axles with the fee's collected by Toll By Tag or by pre-paid Sun-Pass transponders, vehicle operators who use Toll By Tag pay a $.75 to $1.75 convienance fee on top of the toll while prepaid Sun-Pass users receive a discount on the toll's.

A similar operation to widen I-95 from the Palmetto North to Sample road has been sold to the same company, they will widen the highway and build 4 limited access express lanes in the center of the highway, the entire project will be paid for by future tolls collected in the same manner as I-595.

The goal is to get FDOT excepting rural areas where the amount of traffic doesn't justify toll lanes, out of the highway building and maintenance business all together.

 

I know there are regions of the U.S. where toll roads account for a large percentage of available roadways, but I live--& have lived--in regions where toll roads are sparse or unheard of. I don't see any advantage to having private companies build roads that we would all end up paying for every time we used them, for the rest of our lives, when our governments can build them for us to use free. In this case, I think privatization is a BAD IDEA.

 

Governments don't build roads for free, you pay for roads every time you renew your tag or fill your tank, and privatization is considerably more efficient than government operated road departments, FDOT estimates privatization has saved taxpayers 1.4 Billion on the I-595 project and the work was completed almost a year ahead of schedule,


Contrast that with the Sawgrass expressway, a government built and run expressway which ran 11 months over the completion date, and by 1990 was plagued with a massive $200 million debt, light usage and was a subject of local political corruption, eventually the Broward County Expressway Authority sold the Sawgrass to the Florida Turnpike Authority (a private business chartered by the State of Florida) was made a toll road and is now out of debt and profitable. .
The problem with government is they have no sense of urgency, nor do they consider being efficient or frugal with the taxpayers money to have any value, it's not their money as such they have no reason to spend it wisely, fact is if they don't spend all of what they have been budgeted they will not get any increases in their next budget so they spend even if they don't have to, something that would put a business out of business and maybe land the owners in jail.

 

I have spent more than half of my working life employed by government, & I have never experienced the profane deficiencies you describe in your post, in either my co-workers or my managers & directors. I certainly never entertained such negative feelings for myself, my agency, or the work I did there--or the people we served. Your post sounds like a redundant, highly biased, propagandist statement from the ultra-right. I don't agree.

 

My post is based on known facts, and the fact you attacked the messenger, not the message, indicates you know they are factual or you would dispute them which you cannot.

And of course by self rating you would always get five gold stars, but I cannot help notice what you priorities, that being you, the agency your worked and very last the people you supposedly served.

Typical government employee thought pattern, me first, service to the people last.

 

In response to your last sentence above (in bold print), I think your statement applies even more accurately to big business, where concerns for profits generally Trumps concerns for customers.