Jupiter:
#1. I think you're much too late for this conversation.
#2. Restriction of freedom for greater good. Agreed.
#3. Labelling me as a liberal or conservative. I don't like labelling anyone anything. No one is 100% liberal or conservative. Most people take a convservative stance on one issue and a liberal stance on another.
#4. Progression is not a "restriction" of freedom. That's not what I said. Read what I said in context. I was responding to how people label anyone who questions this country as being anti-American but when in fact, it is by questioning ourselves is how we become better.
#5. Apple versus Microsoft. Again, read it in context. I never compared the two OS'. When I said Apple over took Microsoft, I mean in market value.
#6. Enron was the only one that got caught. I have enough friends in the banking industry to know that pretty much every major company will withhold certain accounting data till the last minute, time certain press releases, only show what's necessary, etc. All within legal parameters. They understand the rules and will stretch it to their limits.
#7. Your argument that CEO needs to make a lot because they need to throw extravangant parties is probably not the best example to use. By the way...just a FYI. Sergey Brin walks around in jean and Vibram Five Fingers.
#8. Minimum wage increases inflation - inflation increases minimum wage. It's a cycle. But you only added to my point. The market isn't completely free flowing. Governing bodies manipulate it all the time. As you stated in the very beginning. "Restriction of freedom for the greater good". Perfect example is how the SEC controls the way stocks are traded in the interest of keeping it "fair".