Hey, that’s my view!
Interesting post on Health Care Reform…
Honest Statism Beats a Fake “Free Market” Every Time – by Kevin Carson
“The point…is not that a socialized system is better than a private system. The point is that their honestly socialized system is better than our socialized corporate system masquerading as a “private” one.”
“Consider this [the public option] in light of the principles of dialectical libertarianism. A particular government measure is not to be evaluated on an atomistic basis, but in light of its contribution to the level of statism in the system of the whole. As Brad Spangler pointed out, when you’re held up at gunpoint the bagman who collects your money is just as much a robber as the guy holding your gun. The corporate bagmen who lobby for government intervention and profit from it are, therefore, part of the government. And when government intervenes to grant special privileges for nominally “private” actors, that is a net increase in statism. On the other hand, when a second government intervention qualifies or limits the exercise of this grant of privilege for the sake of ameliorating the worst effects of privilege, it is a net decrease in statism.”
Thursday, 10. December 2009 18:49
I have to agree 100%. I’d rather honest statism/socialism rather than this fake capitalist system we have. I hate the way people blame any economic ills on un-checked free-market capitalism.
I see no reason why corporation should get ANY favor from the government, whether the protection afforded the stockholders via the “corporate person”, or bailouts, or city-wide monopoly deals, or whatever.
Thursday, 10. December 2009 18:53
Wait, who is being forced to buy health insurance right now?
Thursday, 10. December 2009 22:08
@Kevin — There are a wide variety of deviations in current government policy from the ideal of “zero intervention in the market” that the often abused academic term “free market” describes. Such deviations usually work in favor of big business (at the expense of ordinary folks) even though such policies usually get sold to the public as being supposedly antagonistic to big business.
Saturday, 12. December 2009 14:15
Kevin, the answer to your question is not straightforward because the “deviations in current government policy” as Brad writes.
I might argue that I am being forced to buy health insurance right now. I, like most Americans, work a job with health insurance provided through my work. The incentives are such, however, that my employer covers a huge portion of my insurance. My out-of-pocket cost for a basic (but very good) plan is only $29/month. Who wouldn’t opt to buy health insurance given this option? I don’t have the option of taking in wages what my company is paying the health insurance provider.
Of course I could change jobs if I really didn’t want health insurance but my point is that the tax system is set up now to totally screw with the incentives in such a way that a free market in health insurance at the consumer level is really a bogus idea.
And that’s just one example…
I’m not being forced to buy insurance but…is it really that different?
Tuesday, 15. December 2009 14:12
Employment is a private contract. No one is being forced to buy health insurance. Lots of employers don’t offer it, and presumably the wage market is properly functioning to accomodate their employees for the absence of that cost.
Health insurance is not a cartel. There is real competition in the health care insurance market. Your employer is free to chose among insurers and contract with whichever offers the insurance at the best price. The proper incentives for your employer to do this are in place — they are paying for the insurance, after all.
What is the option the linked article promotes in opposition to the “cartel” that isn’t a cartel?
LIES.
There is no way, no how, no conceivable chance that any public option would be truly self-financed while competing with private insurers. Nobody who understands the insurance market could believe it has a snowball’s chance in hell of occuring. The author is lying or doesn’t get it.
IN BRIEF: People will chose the private insurers or the public option, whichever is cheaper. The private insurers will compete and take business from anybody with whom they can come to an agreed price that is (expected to be) profitable. For those people for whom that isn’t possible, the public option will offer them coverage at premiums less that what is necessary to actually insure them. Therefore the public option will not self-finance. QED.