You misunderstand the grandparent post. He is saying that you don't get to change rules of economics. But you (in this case the government) does get to setup

You misunderstand the grandparent post. He is saying that you don't get to change rules of economics. But you (in this case the government) does get to setup the rules of the marketplace. And it is this combination of basic economics and rules of the marketplace (in this case government hiding cross subsidies for Medicare) that results in the mess we are in. But the basic rules of supply, demand and self-interest are the same here as they are in the auto mechanic business and as they were in Soviet Union.