Paul Ryan Defends 'the Morality of the Free Enterprise System'
Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) suggested on Sunday that anything corporations do is moral as long as they follow the law.
Fox News host Chris Wallace asked the House Budget Committee chairman if Republican presidential candidates should be criticizing each other over the way they made their money and handled their personal finances.
"I don't think so," Ryan replied. "We need to defend the morality of the free enterprise system and upward mobility. We need to defend the morality of a system in American that says you are free to take risks, to make money, to create jobs and to do it however you want to so long as it's legal. That's something we should be proud of."
"It does bother me when some candidates -- and there's more than one -- go after each other based on their success in the free enterprise system," he added. "That's not who we are. That's what Barack Obama is doing to us."
Earlier this month, Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich charged that Bain Capital, the firm founded by former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, was "exploitative" for the way it profited from buying and selling companies, often killing thousands of jobs in the process. Former Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry referred to that business model as "vulture capitalism."
Of course he does.
That's what psychopath's do.
Who would have ever thunk that Eddie Munster would grow up to become such a complete ass hole?
Rush Limbaugh is what a smart person thinks a stupid bigot sounds like.
Republican Myth #1
Corporations = God
Brave Lady Liberty who carries her forever-lit torch of enlightenment, freedom, and hope. "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me."
Republican Myth #2
Upward Mobility.
..Paul Ryan is an unassisted genius who, in the wee hours of the night, retires to his very expensive mahogany desk where, undistrubed, he concocts all his pro-1% schemes.
Myth-busting fact: Paul Ryan is an ignorant puppet who is being bribed by ALEC, Chamber of Commerce, Heritage Foundation, Wall Street & the Koch bros. to mainstream their nation-destroying bullshit.
When Fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in excess body fat & carrying a misspelled sign.
"In [New] Jersey anything is legal
As long as you don't get caught.."
Bob Dylan
I love these right wing "personal responsibility" folks. So Republican behavior is President Obama's fault according to this loser.
This is so typical of these ChristoRepublican LizardFucks.
For these ChristoCreeps, morality is a cherry-picked matter of convenience;
and the louder they bleat jeezus! jeezus! lordsaviorjeezus! the more certain we can be that they're fucking the secretary, blowing some kid, or screwing the public of our savings, our investments, and our retirement options.
No offense, I hope.
Ignorance is the mother of all religions.
so, using paul ryan's logic, slavery was moral, and that basterd, lincoln, used big government to trample the rights of good businessmen.
of course this koch-sucker fails to address just how and why certain aspects of business/finance are legal... which brings us back to the koch brothers and others of their ilk-dome.
Well, it did allow you take risks, to make money, and create jobs. It would be hard for him to argue otherwise.
Just don't say he voted to end Medicare as we know it.
TFR
'splain it that way and you are going to have more frosh at Wharton looking to sign up for the introductory course on how to set up your own trans-atlantic-free labor trade system. as an elective of course.
think about it, their money never sleeps, and, whip 'em enough, neither will their slaves. kismet
"Hello, Ayn Rand, are you there? "
These guys give capitalism a bad name, they don't own free enterprise or personal success, no one is trying to take anything from them. corporations, legal, two words that should not be in the same sentence. NIce try Paul!
"These guys give capitalism a bad name"
Capitalism is the "exploitation" of natural resources and the "labor" of others: the system at it's very core is "anti-social".
aren't you the ron paul supporter?
Adam Smith believed in capitalism with consience. And in actuality after the reforms of the 1920's and 30' capitalism was on the right track. It was a perceived economic system that consisted of three legs: land, labor and capital. The most important of which was LABOR. Labor was to be seen as rewarded for its productivity. Capital financed efforts of labor to be productive and thus create a return on investment. Land has always been a resource of production and growth. The american businessmen who are greedy, selfish and consider democracy a bother are the ones who have carroded the system. Paul Ryan is just a TPARTY robot who wants to get rich quick and the way he does it, is to betray american principles and continue corporate america's distortion of democracy. Taking care of the common good is just common sense. Protection of natural resources is looking ahead to give future generations opportunity. If big oil, etc. ...had its way, we would drain the land, pollute the fresh water supply and rivers and leave the mess for the next generation to clean up. But, that would be very painful, as would have been for the auto industry had Obama done what Romney had advocated and let the auto industry die. We have an human obligation to ourselves and the next generation. All religions advocate being our brother's keeper. It is interesting, the repugs talk the BIBLE passages of JESUS but have no understanding of the words or the price of its implementation. The price is generosity, caring for someone else, selflessness and a democracy that recognizes all peoples as equals, deserving and have rights to life and liberty of conscience.
CarmanK
"Middle class societies don't emerge automatically as an economy matures, they have to be CREATED through political action." Paul Krugman.
"Worker exploitation".
"Outsourcing".
Calls to eliminate the Minimum Wage.
Calls to destroy union membership.
"Greed is good" and asking wealthy people to pay their taxes for the privilege of living in this country is "Class Warfare!"
The new "morality" of today's GOP... whose front-runner is a serial adulterer that was kicked out of office for ethics violations.
I would add that putting the value of money ahead of the value of people's lives is probably the definition of immoral. I think they wrote a book about it.... say around 2,000 years ago?
* There are two types of Republicans: millionaires and suckers.
"Mugsy's Rap Sheet": Recording history for those who seek to rewrite it.
Many more than just one book was not just written but passed down among generations verbally several hundred years before the book you refer to. An actual human being whose life is actually documented, Buddha. But what do I know? PEACE
The love you take is equal to the love you make. John Lennon Paul Mc Cartney
As is the case with any successful parasite, or extortionist,
the corporate Shirt has mastered the art of extracting as much as possible from its host, without quite killing it off.
Ignorance is the mother of all religions.
See tobacco industry.
As is the case with any successful parasite, or extortionist,
the corporate Shirt has practiced the art of extracting as much as possible from its host, without quite killing it off.
LOL!
Ignorance is the mother of all religions.
Hey ryan, the don just called you into his office,...
"Parachutes are allowed in checked or carry-on baggage, but may not be worn in flight."
---Southwest Airlines
or ethical, but it isn't illegal.
Legality trumps morality -- this from the "values" crowd.
What a crock from Mr. Social Security Survivors Benefit.
First they ignore us..then they ridicule us..then they fight us..then we win..Gandhi
www.ickenittlepost.com
Randian logic has it that no-one ever succeeds except by their own brilliant effort - ignoring the fact that most rich people started out in life pretty well off. Anyway, promoting 'enlightened self-interest' as if it were actually enlightened is just ignoring reality. And to say that anything is OK as long as it's legal ignores the fact that the rich have been lobbying for decades to change the laws in their favour. So many of the acts that led to the 2008 economic collapse would have been against the law before the repeal of Glass/Steagal, for example. See Bill Moyers' latest show for more on that dynamic.
"In theory theory and practice are alike. In practice they are very different."
worships a woman who admired a serial killer.
The best way to get to the bottom of Ayn Rand's beliefs is to take a look at how she developed the superhero of her novel, Atlas Shrugged, John Galt. Back in the late 1920s, as Ayn Rand was working out her philosophy, she became enthralled by a real-life American serial killer, William Edward Hickman, whose gruesome, sadistic dismemberment of 12-year-old girl named Marion Parker in 1927 shocked the nation.
But we'll just ignore that part of hero-Rand's history.
First they ignore us..then they ridicule us..then they fight us..then we win..Gandhi
www.ickenittlepost.com
between Obama snuffing out the lives of "millions" of human being in the Middle East (men women and Children) with his "war on terror" and Ron Paul allowing a few thousand to perish here at home; what would you do? We have a Congress to "check" Ron Paul; the people in the Middle East have no appeal when Obama sends the Drones, Special Forces, CIA, or Seal Team 6 in for the kill. As heart breaking as it is to watch some one die from a lack of Health Care, it is far more terrifying to watch your child be burned alive by Napalm, or White Phosphorous!
"aren't you the ron paul supporter?"
NO!
I am to the "left" of Howard Zinn.
Was he the guy who took over after Obomber threw Saul Alinsky under a bus and launched a drone attack on ACORN?
TFR
Don't feed the trolls.
It's moral as long as it is technically legal and when it is not you pay a small fine.
"I just want you to know that this is nothing personal. It's purely business."
Selling cigarette is legal. Selling tobacco is not moral.
immoral. It is a system based on greed. Greed is immoral. Therefore "Free Enterprise" is immoral. Ryan says that as long as "Free Enterprise" works within the law that it is moral. The problem is he also advocate the removal of all regulations to "Free Enterprise". He thus believes that all morality must be removed from "Free Enterprise".
Morality doesn't factor into free enterprise.
"anything corporations do is moral as long as they follow the law."
And since the corporations have the money to influence what laws get passed,and do, I guess that makes them the moral arbiters of the country now huh?
Fail Paul Ryan.
Because that makes it right. Never mind that it is legal because these same amoral fucks bought enough influence (congressmen) and were allowed to write the laws to their advantage and to everyone else's disadvantage. But hey, it's legal!
"Don't feed the trolls."
every one who disagrees is not a "Troll"
they would have been hurt.
I am not a "herd animal"; if that makes me a troll in the eyes of the herd than, so be it.
So no problems there, right GOP?
He acts like the evil doers in the 1% (not all of them are bad) are just neutral elements, simply working within whatever legal framework exists. BS. They buy congressmen, hire lobbyists, and basically write the regulations and tax codes to their benefit and to the detriment of the 99%, and then sit back and say, "Well, I'm just following the laws!"
You forget they don't just follow the laws, they pay for those laws that they want to follow, that they know will enrich them while those laws impoverish everyone else.
Mitt Romney and Bain capital were the assholes who paid for deregulation so that they could exploit the chaos that ensued, basically a criminal conspiracy from start to finish.
This is what you call psychopath Inc.
Are corporations, as opposed to their executives, capable of being moral or immoral? Do they have minds? Do they have volition?
That's what Barack Obama is doing to us.<<<<
You mean to say, President Obama is forcing the Repub candidates to form their circular firing squad?
---
what is worse, ignorance or indifference?
I don't know and I don't care!
What Ryan said is actually quite fascinating. It directly equates morality with legality, with makes absolutely perfect sense if you see government through a theocratic prism. Of course, this stance is highly theoretical and would shake mightily when confronted with reality... but it makes ideological sense nonetheless. Still, I would be tempted to ask Ryan (and any other politician who disparages questioning how another politician makes their money) if they would disapprove of someone who made their fortune providing late-term abortions. Personally, I think liquidating jobs for shareholder (and personal) profit is fair game for criticism by both the left and the right... unless you're a theocratic absolutist.
Anything that the "free" market produces is moral because the participants are acting voluntarily out of their own volition, or so the theory goes. What they leave out of that analysis are externalities where others who are effected have no say in the transaction, and other forms of coercion that don't involve direct violence (violence being a state run monopoly), such as starvation, disease, and psychological warfare. He is among the willfully blind.
Ryan is missing the point, ya I know what a shock. Making money is fine and not the problem, it's a level playing field or lack there of is the problem. Rich people should share at least the same if not a little more in support of the system that made them rich and if nothing else pay an equal share in taxes, period.
Abortion is legal.
.
Ignorance is the mother of all religions.
Although the words he use are not.
It is legal for these things to happen. Morals do not come into it. Corporations, despite what Romney says, are not people. They are legal entities and do not have morals as such. Their purpose is to make money and grow. Most do it within the rules and regulations. Those that do not are criminal organisations.
The only real answer is to agree with Paul. The only way to impose morals or limits on a corporation is to is to regulate it or the industry as determined by society.
what an amoral asshole.
me-oww!
Paul Ryan is a bigot. Thats very simple.
Comments are restricted to registered users only.
Login - Register