Since you bring up the National Health Service, Platt, I'd like to be told
just exactly when it was that the UK government had to put tanks on the
streets to enforce free health care for all. I'd also like to know whether
your assumption that efficiency is in all cases greater with the addition of
competion is actually backed up by any evidence whatsoever. I refer to the
fact that compared to the supposedly gun-enforced state monopolies of the
NHS the competiotion rich US health insurance system results in you Yankees
paying about twice the proportion of GDP on a public health provision which
is comprehensively worse in every way.
I also refer to several well understood phenomena in economics such as
transaction costs (so that for example fifteen companies running a railway
cost more than one company running a railway) minimum profitability (so that
there can be a limit to how far competion can increase effeciency - beyond
which deregulation to stimulate new market entries and competition can
actually lead to *both* lower standards of service *and* higher prices, as
for example when the deregulation of buses lead to fragmentation and the
breakdown of useable timetables), and finally natural monopolies, where
there is a practical limit to the number of pipelines/motorways/railway
lines/cancer specialists etc than can connect London and Birmingham.
It seems to me that MOQ preaches awareness of something beyond your idee
fixe, and that you should therefore attend to the facts.
Message ends (but not festering annoyance woth ideologues, which continues).
> From: "Platt Holden" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Date: Sat, 2 Jun 2001 13:14:37 -0400
> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Subject: Re: MD In Defense Of Socialism?
>
> .Government monopolies are far worse than private ones because they
> are able to enforce their monopoly at gunpoint.
>
> . Government monopolies rarely allow the taxes collected to support
> them from being used by competitiors, thus eliminating serious
> competition. (Public schools, universal health systems being
> examples.)
MOQ.ORG - http://www.moq.org
Mail Archive - http://alt.venus.co.uk/hypermail/moq_discuss/
MD Queries - [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To unsubscribe from moq_discuss follow the instructions at:
http://www.moq.org/md/subscribe.html
