For those that don't know, the United Kingdom spends eighty billion pounds a year on healthcare,
funded directly through taxes. His central point was: "Don't you feel like you're being ripped
off paying for the health care of jobless people when you're busting a gut earning a living?"
This point is the blind leading the sightless. The whole problem with socialized medicine is the childish
entitlement mentality. What are you guys doing running around making sure everyone is getting their fair
share?
I think it's an important question and one that needs answering if the United States is going to
replace their broken healthcare system. My answer is simply that even ignoring the people who don't
work, it is still a better deal for you if you have socialized health care.
While our health care system is, indeed, broken, it is less broken than most other health care systems,
including and especially Britain and Canada's. This kind of question is not really an important question --
it is not why most of the opponents oppose socialized medicine.
Free market economies work best when prices are elastic; that is, where changes in price affect the
demand for the product. This allows price to signal the level of available supply and prevent
shortages of goods. The problem with healthcare is that it is not elastic. If I have cancer, a broken
leg or some other ailment I have to get it fixed - regardless of the cost.
I don't know who you are -- you could be an economist for all I know. Perhaps you are a leading expert on
health care economics. But, this little analysis of yours is absurd, and you really don't know anything about
what you are talking about. If what you are saying is true, then no prices for anything would be elastic.
When the clutch goes out on your car, you need a mechanic to fix it. That doesn't make the market for such
services inelastic. Some people fix it themselves, but the vast majority of us do not. Similarly, when one
dislocates their shoulder, some people will fix it themselves, but the vast majority of us will not. Some
people with terminal cancer just decide it's their time to go or resort to their own "treatments", but most of
us get professional help. When someone has problem with the plumbing in their house, they usually get a
plumber, but some people don't. The fact that people seek out services or have a need for services doesn't
make the price for those services inelastic.
What makes the price for a given service inelastic isn't the fact that almost anyone will get that service
from someone if they need it, but rather if they don't have a choice of providers to get that service
from. And, that is precisely what would be the case with socialized medicine. And, that is also part of what
is wrong with American health care. It is not caused by the need for services but by intervention to prevent
a competitive market for providing those services. This happens, for instance, by way of the fact that it is
illegal to get prescription drugs except by way of authorization from certain professionals, the fact that it
is illegal to get certain medications by any means, the fact that it is illegal for people to perform services
unless they are licensed to do so, and so on. At any rate, the price for medical care is every bit as
intrinsically inelastic as mechanical work on your car is. In other words, it's not.
Furthermore, another thing that is wrong with American health care is the fact that we get way more services
than we need. And, that is also what is really wrong with your analysis -- this idea or attitude that a
little health care always makes things better. You gain nothing from superfluous services. If you tear your
ACL, you will quite frequently get an unnecessary x ray "just in case" you might have broken something. Right
now,
Back to making sugar, I guess....
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6266712.stm
They were said to be working in inhumane conditions on a sugar cane plantation in the Amazon.
An ethanol-producing company which owns the plantation has denied allegations of abusing the workers.
Human rights and labour organisations believe that between 25,000 to 40,000 people could be working in conditions akin to slavery in Brazil.
Many farmers in the Amazon region who incur debts are forced to work virtually for free in order to repay the money they owe.
Labour ministry officials and prosecutors discovered more than 1,100 workers working 14 hours a day and living in conditions described as "appalling".
It is the largest such raid in Brazil, a country beset by the problem of slave labour.
Officials said that the labourers lived in overcrowded conditions with no proper sanitation facilities.
Ethanol industry
The plantation was located about 155 miles (250 km) from the mouth of the Amazon river near the town of Ulianopolis.
Amazon workers
Many workers in the Amazon work on plantations to pay debts
The company which runs the plantation denies the charges against it and said that the workers were paid good wages by Brazilian standards.
But the BBC's Gary Duffy, in Sao Paulo, says many are thought to fall into debt slavery by paying for transportation to work far from where they live and by buying overpriced tools and food.
Ethanol sells in Brazil at half the price for conventional petrol and is said to be a greener fuel for cars.
Recently, President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva pledged to bring industry leaders and workers together to "to discuss the humanisation of the sugar cane sector in this country".
He was acting after being criticised for calling Brazil's ethanol producers "national and world heroes", despite critics accusing producers of exploiting workers in the sugar cane and ethanol industry.
The Mobile Verification Task Force, which conducted the raid on the plantation, was founded in 1995 by the Labour Ministry and claims to have freed more than 21,000 workers from debt slave conditions at more than 1,600 farms across Brazil.
The Roman Catholic Church estimates there are some 25,000 workers living in slave-like conditions throughout Brazil, most of them in the Amazon.
Slashdot Mirror
This point is the blind leading the sightless. The whole problem with socialized medicine is the childish entitlement mentality. What are you guys doing running around making sure everyone is getting their fair share?
While our health care system is, indeed, broken, it is less broken than most other health care systems, including and especially Britain and Canada's. This kind of question is not really an important question -- it is not why most of the opponents oppose socialized medicine.
I don't know who you are -- you could be an economist for all I know. Perhaps you are a leading expert on health care economics. But, this little analysis of yours is absurd, and you really don't know anything about what you are talking about. If what you are saying is true, then no prices for anything would be elastic. When the clutch goes out on your car, you need a mechanic to fix it. That doesn't make the market for such services inelastic. Some people fix it themselves, but the vast majority of us do not. Similarly, when one dislocates their shoulder, some people will fix it themselves, but the vast majority of us will not. Some people with terminal cancer just decide it's their time to go or resort to their own "treatments", but most of us get professional help. When someone has problem with the plumbing in their house, they usually get a plumber, but some people don't. The fact that people seek out services or have a need for services doesn't make the price for those services inelastic.
What makes the price for a given service inelastic isn't the fact that almost anyone will get that service from someone if they need it, but rather if they don't have a choice of providers to get that service from. And, that is precisely what would be the case with socialized medicine. And, that is also part of what is wrong with American health care. It is not caused by the need for services but by intervention to prevent a competitive market for providing those services. This happens, for instance, by way of the fact that it is illegal to get prescription drugs except by way of authorization from certain professionals, the fact that it is illegal to get certain medications by any means, the fact that it is illegal for people to perform services unless they are licensed to do so, and so on. At any rate, the price for medical care is every bit as intrinsically inelastic as mechanical work on your car is. In other words, it's not.
Furthermore, another thing that is wrong with American health care is the fact that we get way more services than we need. And, that is also what is really wrong with your analysis -- this idea or attitude that a little health care always makes things better. You gain nothing from superfluous services. If you tear your ACL, you will quite frequently get an unnecessary x ray "just in case" you might have broken something. Right now,
...ehtanol -- "green" feul, etc -- would agree with you....
Back to making sugar, I guess.... http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6266712.stm They were said to be working in inhumane conditions on a sugar cane plantation in the Amazon. An ethanol-producing company which owns the plantation has denied allegations of abusing the workers. Human rights and labour organisations believe that between 25,000 to 40,000 people could be working in conditions akin to slavery in Brazil. Many farmers in the Amazon region who incur debts are forced to work virtually for free in order to repay the money they owe. Labour ministry officials and prosecutors discovered more than 1,100 workers working 14 hours a day and living in conditions described as "appalling". It is the largest such raid in Brazil, a country beset by the problem of slave labour. Officials said that the labourers lived in overcrowded conditions with no proper sanitation facilities. Ethanol industry The plantation was located about 155 miles (250 km) from the mouth of the Amazon river near the town of Ulianopolis. Amazon workers Many workers in the Amazon work on plantations to pay debts The company which runs the plantation denies the charges against it and said that the workers were paid good wages by Brazilian standards. But the BBC's Gary Duffy, in Sao Paulo, says many are thought to fall into debt slavery by paying for transportation to work far from where they live and by buying overpriced tools and food. Ethanol sells in Brazil at half the price for conventional petrol and is said to be a greener fuel for cars. Recently, President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva pledged to bring industry leaders and workers together to "to discuss the humanisation of the sugar cane sector in this country". He was acting after being criticised for calling Brazil's ethanol producers "national and world heroes", despite critics accusing producers of exploiting workers in the sugar cane and ethanol industry. The Mobile Verification Task Force, which conducted the raid on the plantation, was founded in 1995 by the Labour Ministry and claims to have freed more than 21,000 workers from debt slave conditions at more than 1,600 farms across Brazil. The Roman Catholic Church estimates there are some 25,000 workers living in slave-like conditions throughout Brazil, most of them in the Amazon.