Should certain industries be non-profit? For starters, health, finance, 'defence'...

[ControlledDemolition]

Making a profit in these areas insentifies treatment instead of cure, debt instead of wealth, war instead of peace.

While I'm at it, all religous organizations should pay tax up front and justify their deductions like everyone else (except corporate America of course!).

[leftstreet]

1. Yes

Capitalism is fairly good at bringing us pet rocks and barbie dolls, but not things like healthcare or shelter.

[Sebastian Doyle]

2. Well, for starters, there shouldn't be a full time "defense" industry at all.

Nor should there be a US military presence anywhere but within the United States.

And yes. health care should be nationalized. As should banking (Treasury, NOT the private banking cartel called the "Federal Reserve") Energy (fuck Exxon, Chevron, Shell, etc.)

As far as taxing churches...... I'd definitely start with the ones which are about right wing politics as much as they are about "doing God's work". If the Mormon church can dump millions into pushing Prop H8 in California, they can god damn well pay taxes on it.

[Cant trust em]

3. The mormon church should have lost their 501(c)(3) status

I'm sure that the money was effectively laundered so that it didn't "technically" come from the church, but I want to be outraged anyway.

[ControlledDemolition]

8. 'Magic (undergarment) Pants' save the day once more! n/t

[ControlledDemolition]

6. Only genuinely good-samaritan-expenditures should be deductible!

Let them invest in preserving the environment and caring for those brought into this world because of their stance on contraception. Let's tax them at Ike's top tier rates for`any political/'think tank' donation.

(Edit: typo.)

[Selatius]

10. Getting rid of the defense industry will get you a bullet in the head, I fear.

Because somebody who is sitting on billions of dollars of war contracts or somebody who could get millions or billions off of the start of a new war is going to have a motive to kill you if you threaten to take the money train away, and he's got enough money to hire the best assassins the world can offer.

Y'know, Bill Hicks once joked that every new president who is elected gets to have a meeting on his first day in office. He gets ushered into this room. This room is full of the powerful industrialists and financiers who put him into office in the first place. A screen rolls down, and the film starts. It's the assassination of JFK, only it's from an angle you've never seen before that kinda resembles the grassy knoll. The film ends, and the lights come on. One of them says, "Any questions?"

[ControlledDemolition]

11. You are 100% correct! JFK's demise is the Rosetta Stone of all the crap going on today. n/t

[Oregone]

4. A lot of industries should move to the non-profit model

When revenue is diverted from pay & benefits, as well as reinvestment, research, and innovation, to satisfy the portfolio of some heir of a robber baron, it is detrimental to the business. Why should the children of yesterday's Lords be infinitely entitled to forever profit from all current and future industry that they do not labor on, when it comes at the cost of depriving from those very industries?

[Cant trust em]

5. I agree with all of the ones, except possibly for finance

I think that this might be more about an effective negotiation and keeping the rules open than making it not for profit.

I'm kind of thinking out loud here and not really sure where I stand. It's getting late, after all.

[ControlledDemolition]

7. Good, decent, enforcable regulation could well do the trick. I agree. n/t

[Old and In the Way]

9. Pay for healthcare by cutting Defense.

We'll be healthier and the world will be a happier place to live.

[zbdent]

12. it's interesting ... Americans went from "businesses are charging the military $400 for a hammer"

to "privatize everything ... it saves money!"

Intellectual disconnect runs rampant ...

[justabob]

13. there are definitely a few things that should never be for profit

My list: healthcare, education, prisons/law enforcement..... There are more fields that should be not-for-profit, but those three are a good place to start imo.