Perhaps the BEST B1G Forum anywhere, here at College Football Fan Site, CFB51!!!

maybe I'll retire earlier if the market hits an all-time high

That tends to happen when you print your own money and funnel it where it needs to go in order to generate a specific outcome. 

Of course, "evening out" means that your portfolio now vs. your portfolio "then" is still objectively worth less.  It just gets to have the same pretty lines on a chart saying "look, I have pretty lines, right where you remember them."  Ignore the price of meat and dairy, don't think about that, just look at the pretty lines. 

A private company will attempt to maximize profits, yes indeed (presuming they are a for profit company).  The will have competitors attempting to do the same.  They will all, in an open market, attempt to out do each other with better products at a better price thus becoming more attractive to consumers.  If they fail, the consumer will let them know.  It's a market driven economy, the "invisible hand" etc.

In a socialist world, the considerations won't be profit, which is an evil term, but keeping employees (voters) happy.  Freed of competition (and the constraint of needing a profit), they are able to charge and make whatever they want, empty shelves or crappy products would not be a concern.  This is a centrally planned economy, and the more it's planned, the worse it always is, in every case.

I saw it first hand in Cuba, and to a lesser extent in France, and to a lesser extent in the USA.  Cuba was far worse than I expected.  We only saw Havana and I thought they would have spiffed up the tourist area, but it was horrible, and our guide described her daily life, it was unpleasant.  They had shops both government owned and privately owned, the do allow some small businesses to be private.  There was a very obvious difference between  them, I could tell which was which in seconds.

Free markets also can have issues, monopolies can tend to arise and thus you no long have a free market.  Our government used to pay some attention to that.

A private company will attempt to maximize profits, yes indeed (presuming they are a for profit company).  The will have competitors attempting to do the same.  They will all, in an open market, attempt to out do each other with better products at a better price thus becoming more attractive to consumers.  If they fail, the consumer will let them know.  It's a market driven economy, the "invisible hand" etc.

In a socialist world, the considerations won't be profit, which is an evil term, but keeping employees (voters) happy.  Freed of competition (and the constraint of needing a profit), they are able to charge and make whatever they want, empty shelves or crappy products would not be a concern.  This is a centrally planned economy, and the more it's planned, the worse it always is, in every case.

I saw it first hand in Cuba, and to a lesser extent in France, and to a lesser extent in the USA.  Cuba was far worse than I expected.  We only saw Havana and I thought they would have spiffed up the tourist area, but it was horrible, and our guide described her daily life, it was unpleasant.  They had shops both government owned and privately owned, the do allow some small businesses to be private.  There was a very obvious difference between  them, I could tell which was which in seconds.

Free markets also can have issues, monopolies can tend to arise and thus you no long have a free market.  Our government used to pay some attention to that.

You start out good, having a prudent response.....then you bring in Cuba for some reason.
Nevermind.
The leaps made by some of you, 4 seconds into a conversation, make it basically impossible to have an valid discussions here.  Cuba?  That's the alternative to privatizing prisons and schools and more?  Welp, it's either that or become Cuba!

FFS

So the idea is that the gov't tries to do big things for the benefit of the people, but does it poorly.  Okay, got it.
But any and every privately-run entity is going to do the big things for the benefit of itself.  And the idea is that the better it does it, the more money it will make for itself, and we all benefit as it improves, right?
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Except that this idea completely leaves out the fact that the private entity will never just stay statically successful.  It will try to trim costs forever, sacrifice quality for profits to the point it's making 1 more penny than an otherwise better service or product would make. 
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Why is the greed (or the impossible perpetual quarterly profits, if you wish) always ignored?  It knows no bounds. 

and everybody knows there is no greed in our government

and everybody knows the more the government gets involved the more it tries to determine how you should live your life

and everyone knows the government would never promote free handouts for political gain or pick on you for your beliefs

yep I want the government to run all the important services I now get privately

and everybody knows there is no greed in our government

and everybody knows the more the government gets involved the more it tries to determine how you should live your life

You just prefer a CEO to do it, instead.  Cool.

Who advocated for that here?

I simply used it as an example as I outlined the two basic forms of economic systems.  Quite a few humans "like" a centrally planned economy, you know, because it's "fair".  No rich folks, no poor folks, everyone gets the same medical care and legal help, etc.  It's nirvana, and "fair".

Spread the wealth, Robin Hood the billionaires, get the poor out of poverty.