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What amazes me is that progressives simultaneously believe that 1) the U.S. government is controlled by special interests ( insurance companies, the AMA, drug
by bokonist 18y ago
What amazes me is that progressives simultaneously believe that 1) the U.S. government is controlled by special interests ( insurance companies, the AMA, drug companies ) and 2) we should give the government more power to regulate healthcare. If you believe 1), then doing 2) means giving even more power to the special interests.
Anybody who wants the US healthcare system to look more like Europe's, must also come up with a realistic way of 1) replacing our Congressional system with a Parliamentary system, and 2) curbing the power of the lobbies. Otherwise, any plan to use government to make healthcare better will be co-opted by the special interests and end up making the healthcare worse.
- jraines 18y agoWell, we'd like to curb the influence of special interests before giving the government more power. And while I'm at it, a moon base would be pretty cool, too.
- nazgulnarsil 18y agocollectivists are always cheerful until they meet people who don't agree with them. why do you think socialism works so well for several small european countries? homogeneity.
- Prrometheus 18y agoYes. All institutions are governed by incentives. The Government is not run by angels, but men. Furthermore, being the largest organization of any sort in the entire world, it has a particularly byzantine, inefficient, and wasteful web of contradictory incentives that govern it. It amazes me that people use such sloppy thinking when it comes to politics. "We'll should use the government to do X" is not the end of the conversation. We must ask how likely it is to carry out the goals given it, how much it will cost to do so compared to alternative solutions, etc. Edit: In Economics this line of reasoning is called "Public Choice Theory"