Industries that should NOT be for profit. I'll start:

[JJChambers]

Healthcare / insurance
Prisons

[bemildred]

1. Schools. nt

[bemildred]

2. Defense. nt

[Adrahil]

3. Police. Fire Protection NT

[LeftofObama]

4. Water n/t

[rdharma]

5. Postal Service......

[grntuscarora]

6. Energy.

[sakabatou]

7. Military

[Wolf Frankula]

13. There is a name for "For Profit Military Formations'

Mercenaries!

Wolf

[Nay]

8. Scientific research.

[truebluegreen]

9. Transportation depts. All utilities.

[Historic NY]

10. Insurance...

what kind???

Health I agree........its sure going to be difficult getting life, fire, theft, car, etc. w/o a profit for the insurer since they take the risk.

[unapatriciated]

11. public access tv

[Hell Hath No Fury]

12. Medications.

Water
Energy
Military
Education
Weather forecasting
Medical research

Just off the top of my head...

[Paulie]

14. Moon bases

[lumberjack_jeff]

15. Utilities and infrastructure. n/t

[Scuba]

16. Banking, telecommunications, mining and other natural resource extraction.

[Catherina]

17. Banking n/t

[Rex]

28. +1

[Catherina]

37. Backatcha with a good morning!

[Rex]

42. Hope you are having a GREAT day!

Doing some carpentry work today. Paneling a ceiling with cedar.

[Ron Obvious]

18. Roads...

Funny, I started listing some of them and realised that I had slipped into the "What have the Romans ever done for us" scene from Life of Brian.

I bet it means something.

[dionysus]

19. add education and energy to round out your list.

[longship]

20. I like this thread.

All of the above, but above all...

Healthcare

[TransitJohn]

21. The water supply.

No brainer.
I'd add food, but I'm a commie pinko that way.

[Matariki]

22. Thank you. This needs to be an issue.

We need to push on this.

[Half-Century Man]

23. My few cents worth

Waste Disposal
Consumer Protection
Politics
Schools, primary, secondary, and collegiate
Banking
Military
Intelligence/counter-intelligence.
Corrections
Postal Services
Retirement Services
Environmental services and protections

All of these would be better if exclusively publicly funded and controlled.

[RainDog]

24. Education and Pure Research

All levels of education should be sliding fee scale payment. Education should not be limited to the mindset of acquiring a job - i.e. keep funding liberal arts, even if they aren't going to make someone rich in the pocket - b/c they make the culture richer by its exposure to our and others' cultural histories. But practical education should be part of formal education, too.

Theoretical research at the post-doc level should be funded for itself, not for what it produces - i.e. grants should come from the govt. for pure research that fuels a lot of future production - but not all the time, or even within a particular timeframe.

I think utilities should be commonly held so that the use of alternative energy has no bearing on profit for a company, etc. This would also force concerns related to these issues to pass muster with govt. standards instead of thinking they will do the right thing - b/c we see they don't.

Public Libraries (I have nothing against private libraries, but we need public libraries as a commons)
Healthcare
Prisons
Highways and other modes of mass transportation from state to state (including some sort of rail system across the entire nation.)

[WhaTHellsgoingonhere]

25. great thread

K&R

[Vashta Nerada]

26. Schools, universities, and the healthcare industry.

[Rex]

27. The MIC, education, Congress.

Law enforcement, public works.

[JaneyVee]

29. The Internet.

[think]

31. Yup /nt

[bemildred]

35. +1. nt

[hack89]

44. Does that mean the government takes responsibility for the physical infrastructure?

who would own the fiber, routers and switches? How would you separate that from cell phone network backbones and other data networks?

[MindMover]

30. kr..nt

[grahamhgreen]

32. Oil. Nt

[Ichingcarpenter]

33. SEX

Fred Garvin....aka Dan Aykroyd male prostitute.

OH, and everything else mentioned.

[DiverDave]

34. Title should be "Nationalized"

Time to tell the crooks that they have stolen enough $$$.

How long you figure I'd last at cpac?

[whopis01]

36. Anything food supply related. n/t

[el_bryanto]

38. What is the profit motive good for?

What is the benefit of it?

The benefit of it, and the economic competition that goes along with it, is that it in theory forces corporations to do things more efficiently (which is why monopolies, particularly natural monopolies are generally bad things to have in the hands of private corporations).

Assuming we can break up what monopolies there are, why would food not be a good area for the profit motive to prevail?

Bryant

[randome]

39. What is the profit motive good for? Incentive to reach ever higher. To discover something new.

That would occur without a profit motive but at a much slower speed.
[hr][font color="blue"][center]Stop looking for heroes. BE one.[/center][/font][hr]

[el_bryanto]

40. In fairness it's also incentive to reach even lower

One way to make more profit it to make a better product; or to produce it more efficiently. But producing it more efficiently could mean "I am screwing my employees this much, but if i increase it to this much, I'll make more profit."

Another way is to get a monopoly and then you can do what you like without risks to your profit.

Bryant

[randome]

41. Oh, I completely agree.

But I return to my favored explanation of why monopolization and financial abuses occur more frequently today: there are too many of us.

The more people there are, the more people try to distinguish themselves. The more people who try to distinguish themselves, the more 'shortcuts' get taken, leading to abuse, political payoffs, etc.

Not everything in the world can be summarized to some base cause but I really believe in this one. I don't see this as a simplistic explanation, but a valid one that happens to have the 'virtue' of simplicity.
[hr][font color="blue"][center]You should never stop having childhood dreams.[/center][/font][hr]

[me b zola]

43. Adoption

Although it should not be an industry at all.

[randome]

45. College sports.

Spaghetti. And ear wax. I can't even figure out how that stuff gets manufactured in the first place!
[hr][font color="blue"][center]Treat your body like a machine. Your mind like a castle.[/center][/font][hr]

[LWolf]

46. Health Care. Education.

Energy. Housing. Transportation. Food. And infrastructure for all of them.