Polio eradicated in India

mac · Posted: Sat Mar 29, 2014 4:36 pm Post subject: Polio eradicated in India

Bad news for the far right, who keep repeating that government can't accomplish anything. Of course they argue this, ignoring their driving, on a government build road, in a car that is safe because of government regulations, to a park that is owned and managed by the government. The latest accomplishment of government that could not have been done by private industry at all, much less more efficiently, is the eradication of polio in India. Funded in part by the Federal government's Center for Disease Control, and carried out under the auspices of the Indian Government.

As sane people say, government accomplishes those things we do together, generally where there is not a profit to be made. Thank goodness for that!

mac · Posted: Sun Mar 30, 2014 12:13 pm Post subject:

What, no replies from the loony righties explaining that the government really didn't do this? No claims that the children of India need to just man-up and buff up their immune systems on their own? No claims that polio was eradicate in the United States despite the incompetence of government by the sheer virtue of the private sector? Perhaps we can blame polio on EPA for banning DDT?

The bubble is strangely silent when Murdoch doesn't give them talking points.

mrgybe · Joined: 01 Jul 2008 Posts: 5180

Big government types seem incapable of differentiating between a task completed, and a task completed efficiently. Eventually the healthcare web-site will be completed at which point those same people will puff their chests and point to yet another government achievement.......conveniently forgetting that the task should have been completed in a fraction of the time and cost and without the botched roll-out. I have some experience with the Indian bureaucracy. It is widely known to be corrupt and hugely inefficient. There is little doubt that this program followed the usual pattern.

"Indian bureaucracy is the worst in Asia with a 9.21 rating out of 10, according to a report by a prestigious consulting firm based in Singapore. The report said India's inefficient bureaucracy was largely responsible for most of the biggest complaints that business executives have about the country. The complaints included inadequate infrastructure and corruption, where officials were willing to accept under-the-table payments and companies were tempted to pay to overcome bureaucratic inertia and gain government favours, the report claimed.
http://archive.indianexpress.com/news/indian-bureaucracy-worst-in-asia-survey/898469/

pueno · Joined: 03 Mar 2007 Posts: 2807

mac · Posted: Sun Mar 30, 2014 3:33 pm Post subject:

mr knowitall says that the Indian bureaucracy is inefficient. That may be true. Did private enterprise eradicate polio? Or the oily companies?

Some people care only about efficiency, not the health of children. They out themselves constantly.

keycocker · Joined: 10 Jul 2005 Posts: 3598

They are abysmal, yet they were able to achieve something no private effort could. It makes your point precisely, Mac.
They also had the help of numerous charity efforts, but a gov. has the power of laws, cops, and ruthless enforcement to do good deeds.

In some places with small governments like Somalia things aren't so good.

Another country with a small government is Switzerland.

Perhaps it has little to do with size of government, and more to do with competence.

pueno · Joined: 03 Mar 2007 Posts: 2807

keycocker · Joined: 10 Jul 2005 Posts: 3598

The Swiss are mostly very conservative.
It seems to be more of the traditional conservatism my friends and I espouse, rather than the new Talk Radio type so common in the US.
There seems to be little interest among them in a large fake conservative media.

MalibuGuru · Joined: 11 Nov 1993 Posts: 9300

nw30 · Posted: Sun Mar 30, 2014 6:57 pm Post subject: