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Smoosh
Jul 3, 2009

posted by Justin @ 10:27 PM, , links to this post

Breathe
Jun 26, 2009

Happy Friday!

posted by Justin @ 1:06 PM, , links to this post

Some random thoughts on healthcare
Jun 23, 2009

I get most of my news from the radio and the Internet, and the healthcare debate seems to be popping up more and more every day.

And it's making me fairly agitated.

There seems to be an unspoken rule that you Must Not Speak Ill of Free Markets. Obama falls all over himself trying to make sure we believe he's a staunch supporter of capitalism. (He's practically a communist, you know!)

Look, I don't trust anyone or anything that sits too far on either end of a spectrum. Along those lines, I don't trust anyone who says that free markets are ALWAYS the appropriate approach. Proponents of this approach always beat the dead horse of "competition will lower prices." And sometimes it does work that way.

But sometimes in free markets, the price goes up. They seem to forget about that.

Now if apples are $3 a bushel, but demand drives prices up to $12 a bushel, I may or may not be able to tolerate that price. If I can't tolerate that price, I go without apples. And that approach is efficient and works great for cars, TVs, apples, oil, and a slew of other things.

But when applied to healthcare, it means that people who can't tolerate the price go without. And it's one thing to go without gasoline or a TV or apples. But it's immoral to deny medical services or prescription medicine to those who can't afford it.

Sometimes pure free markets aren't the best solution. There, I said it.

Labels: Universal healthcare

posted by Amanda @ 1:15 PM, , links to this post