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Let's take a step back for a minute. Imagine that I don't. Explain to me what a competitive free market it is

A free market "describes a market without economic intervention and regulation by government except to regulate against force or fraud."

and how the competition within it produces companies that provide effective services to their customers.

If those who are in a market do not make a product or provide a service people are willing to pay for somone will introduce competition and do so themselves. That applies whether it is profitable or not. Since the original post is about health insurance, let's use that. During the debate up to the House's vote on their bill there was mention of health co-ops. I didn't know it but not far from me there is a Health insurance coop. Health Partners has existed for almost 50 years.

Being a member, willingly and voluntarily, of 2 coops though neither being a health coop I know how they work. The members, owners, set the policy of the coop. Now there are three main types of coops I know of. One type is the employee or worker owned coop. Basque coops in Spain like the Mondragon Corporation are huge employers. A second type is the supplier owned coop. An example of it in the US is the Organic Valley Coop. The dairy farmers who supply dairy products to the coop are the owners. And the third type is the buyer owned coop such as the two I'm a member of, Lakewinds coop and The Wedge.

All of these types of coops meet the requirements of the free market, a willing and voluntary exchange.

There are a couple of reasons why I don't think you'll see a functioning free-market health-care system.

1) The cost of catastrophic care is high enough that people will need insurance.

I didn't say there wouldn't be insurance. Insurance is part of the plan. Right now most people can't buy insurance on their own and have to get it through their employers. This is because if an employer offers health insurance the employer will get a tax break, but if an individual buys health insurance they do not get a tax break. With a free market system everybody can get insurance and have a tax break. Allow people to choose what type of insurance coverage they want and can afford. If a family wants comprehensive coverage they can pay more for insurance but if an individual only wants catastrophic coverage they can pay out of pocket expenses to see a doctor. For major expenses the insurance will cover it. And if they want coverage for a disability they can buy short term disability insurance. With a plan like a Health Savings Account they can pay for regular expenses. Obviously those who choose such a plan will pay less for insurance than the family who buys comprehensive coverage.

2) Insurance doesn't work very well in the free market due to game theoretic reasons.

There's this thing called person responsibility I happen to believe in. When I've gone grocery shopping I've compared prices. With a freemarket in health care I'd also compare prices. When I can I shop for what I consider the best deal, which may be different than someone else's best deal.

3) Doctors in certain specialties have essentially monopolies in their local areas, forcing their salaries to absurd levels.

Encourage people to go into those specialties and introduce competition. As I say above, if I can shop for a service I can get the best deal.

4) Most importantly, society is not going to let anyone die from lack of healthcare. And so, many people will free-ride off of this and not get health insurance.

What do you think socialized medicine is? It's exactly like that. I don't now but I used to watch my health and try to live as healthy a life style as I could. Because I tried to take care of my health I should have been able to pay less for insurance. Under socialized medicine I wouldn't have that choice, I'd pay the same as the person down the street who eats 5 days a week at McDonald's or the corner greasy restaurant. Under a freemarket though if I wanted to I could join a local healthcare coop. As I'm already a member of two coops, Lakewinds Coop and The Wedge I probable would join one.

Those are some reasons why I think a France-style healthcare system would be cheaper and provide better heath-outcomes then a perfectly free-market one.

And under a system like France's I end up paying for the person down the street who eats at McDonald's 5 days a week even though I eat health food.

"Instead most of the money was simply given to banks, those banks aren't lending money instead their using the money to buy other banks."

No, it was given in exchange for equity, as I said...

Read the name of the program, Troubled Assets Relief Program. It was approved by congress to buy troubled assets from banks, not to give money to banks and that exactly what it should have done. If people wanted the money to go to banks then it should have been named something more appropriate. Heck congress wasn't even happy with what was done to the money.

Falcon

while i grow organic produce for myself, i'm not going to fool myself into thinking it would work on a commercial scale.

So, there are no organic farms? Funny, Willing Workers on Organic Farms has 80 farms in Haiwaii where people can volunteer to work. Local Harvest list 269 organic farms in my area. My coop, The Wedge, which is 5 minutes walk for me is supplied by a number of these organic farms. The same with my other coop, Lakewinds.

the method you are reffering to is rotation planting, and you would require 3x the farm land. in effect you would be cutting down an aweful lot of the eco system your attempting to protect.

Other than using nitrogen fixers I didn't say anything about any methods in the post you replied to, I did mention in other posts that organic farmers use companion planting though. And using companion planting can increase the yield of a given amount of land can produce.

Check out any new gadget article on Slashdot. Nobody talks about buying it locally.

I have and do talk about buying locally. I have stated at least a few tymes that I am a member of two local coops that support both organic and local producers, Lakewinds Coop, and The Wedge Coop.

There's a little known clause in the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade that says for any local governmental or quasi-governmental body, foreign business interests have a right to compete in that marketplace. Local farmer's markets, co-ops, even your local municipal water supply, could potentially be up for grabs under that agreement. It's already begining to happen in South America that way.

The above applies to services government provide not anything coops sale. Coops, including the two I am a member of, are member owned corporations and are not governmment run businesses. This seems to be a mistake too many people make about coops, that they are government agencies or such, when in fact they are not. As one, Lakewinds, says "We are a member-owned cooperative committed to outstanding customer service." As for things like local water supplies, I totally support local control of water. For instance I was against Bechtel's privatization of Cochabamba, Bolivia's water supply in 2000 when it was opposed to by the people in Cochabamba. Then again this isn't capitalism, it's a monopoly, and capitalists hate monopolies. Instead of having a monopoly capitalists woud have the water system open so anyone would be able to provide water services.

It's called comparative advantage in economics. Some places have some advantage in producing somethings that other places don't have just as some places have natural resources in minerals others don't.

Actually it's called ABSOLUTE ADVANTAGE, and it's the killer of comparative advantage

I have no idea what you are talking about, with "ABSOLUTE ADVANTAGE" or in most of this thread. It seems we are talking past each other and are using different terms and definitions. Because of this it seems I'm wasting my tyme, I'm ending my comments.

And you don't need herbicides if you don't need crops...

Make that "you don't need herbicide at all" and you'd be right. Hebicides areen't needed to grow crops otherwise people wouldn't of been growing crops for thousands of years.

You do need herbicide if you want to grow large acres of cropland.

First see above. Secondly organics farmers grow large acreage of crops without herbicides, herbicides are a BIG NO NO in organics. Maybe not the thusands of acres "conventional" farmers use but organics farmers do farm on large farms. Actually in my neck of the woods an organic farm is under threat because an oil company wants to run a pipeline through the farm. Five Questions With Atina Diffley of Gardens of Eagan Farm. Actually through four organic farms. August/September '06 Newsletter.

Communism is superior to capitalism in small economies as it reduces duplication of effort. In larger economies it generally fails because it does not motivate improvement via competition and because the consolidation of effort simplifies totalitarianism unless checked by an outside force.

How ca competition exist without "duplication of effort"?

I don't see any economies willing to share or divide their power for the good of humanity

I see some and am a member of two, Lakewinds Coop and The Wedge Coop. There are something like 7 coops in the region I live in, each supports local businesses as well as small and organic farmers. Each also gives aide to local nonprofits whether in education, working with the environment, or with those working to help the poor.