________________________________________ From: brin-l-boun...@mccmedia.com [mailto:brin-l-boun...@mccmedia.com] On Behalf Of Doug Pensinger Sent: Friday, July 17, 2009 6:26 PM To: Killer Bs (David Brin et al) Discussion Subject: Re: WeChooseTheMoon
John wrote: On Thu, Jul 16, 2009 at 8:58 PM, Doug Pensinger<brig...@zo.com> wrote: > Absolutely not, but isn't that how the free market works; the people with > money/power decide what's in the best interest of the people they control? People they control? Huh? Politicians and regulators control people. Free market allows people to choose for themselves. So if there was some vital benefit to society and it couldn't be provided without a financial loss, how would the free market provide it? > Then we have the ringing success of the U.S. health care system to tell us > how well the free market works for sick people. The US health care system is not a free market. Medicare and Medicaid make up more than 50% of US health care spending, so the majority of the US health care system is government controlled. >And why isn't it a free market? What is the free market mechanism that provides _all_ of >the citizens of one of the worlds wealthiest nations with health care? Folks do get health care, just not in an efficient or timely fashion. In fact, my Republican congressman says that about 20% of the cost of health care for those with insurance is covering the care and the overhead for hiding the cost of the care of those who can't pay for the care they need not to die. I have A Modest Proposal on this. The free market would be part of evolution....those who cannot afford healthcare would be considered unfit until all humans could afford it. :-) Dan M. _______________________________________________ http://mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com
