On Feb 11, 2009, at 4:52 AM, Jared Earle wrote: > On 11 Feb 2009, at 10:32, Mark Smith wrote: >> I think Chucks point of view is tainted by his delusions about the >> efficacy of the free-market. > > Free Market, eh? How's that working out for you?
The singe largest element of the US prison population is composed of people who got caught practicing medicine in the free market. We call them drug dealers. The rest of the medical profession is strictly licensed by the state, is forbidden by law to advertise prices, and is paid almost entirely by the government or by large insurance companies who are themselves so regulated as to be quasi-governmental agencies. I understand Jared's arguments as to why there is no nation where people are actually willing to leave healthcare to the market but I wish some country would actually try it. In the meantime, the AMA is hardly the only regulatory monopoly in the US that likes to pretend that it is operating in the free market. There is a pattern here. When people are generally happy with the results in a given industry the industry publicizes its accomplishments. When people are generally unhappy, the industry makes anti-socialist arguments. - God must have loved the people in power, for he made them so much like their own image of him. -Kenneth Patchen _______________________________________________ OSX-Nutters mailing list | [email protected] http://lists.tit-wank.com/mailman/listinfo/osx-nutters List hosted at http://cat5.org/
