Is a 60-40 private/public split a "free enterprise system?"

[Samson_Corwell]

@Gaius

Makes as much sense as saying “all government spending is for the common good, (except in a dictatorship) therefore it’s not really government spending.”

It is a rationalization, a vacant attempt to justify behavior typically used when logic-based reasons do not exist.

If a court orders a defendant to pay damages to a plaintiff, is that governmennt spending?

[Gaius]

@Samson_Corwell

@Gaius

Makes as much sense as saying “all government spending is for the common good, (except in a dictatorship) therefore it’s not really government spending.”

It is a rationalization, a vacant attempt to justify behavior typically used when logic-based reasons do not exist.

If a court orders a defendant to pay damages to a plaintiff, is that governmennt spending?

I dunno.

I confess I have argued that Pres. Obama chose employer mandates instead if single-payer simply so he could mask the cost, keep it off budget, pretend it is free.

I can tell you that the above “government spending is 40% of the economy” is artificially low because does not include

• the cost of complying with mandated court payments, such as jackpot lawsuits and some of the court settlements you asked about, and
• the cost of complying with regulations, such as SIX sinks being required in every commercial kitchen, braille on drive-thru atms and warning stickers in five-gallon buckets and Spanish language employnent posters, (estimated at $1.8 Trillion or 10% of the economy),
• the cost of complying with laws such as Obamacare, minimum wage, restricting PT employees to 32-hours, mandatory auto insurance etc…

The 40% above is artificially low, and excludes a lot of gov’t mandated spending,
but whether it includes the final disposition of jackpot lawsuits, alimony, or reparations to victims is unkown to me.

[Samson_Corwell]

@Gaius

I can tell you that the above "government spending is 40% of the economy does not include

• the cost of complying with mandated court payments, such as jackpot lawsuits and the one you asked about, and
• the cost of complying with regulations, such as SIX sinks being required in every commercial kitchen, braille on drive-thru atms and warning stickers in five-gallon buckets and Spanish language employnent posters,
• the cost of complying with laws such as Obamacare, minimum wage, restricting PT employees to 32-hours, mandatory auto insurance etc…

It would be silly if that number did include those things.

@Gaius

The 40% above is artificially low, and excludes a lot of gov’t mandated spending, but whether it includes the final disposition of $250 pot fines is unknown to me.

My example is of one private party suing another private party and the courts ordering the defendant to pay damages to the plaintiff. It is not of the government levying a fine. I’m asking if awarding damages is “government spending”.