5 ms·

sounds like a solution to help each other with easy to treat conditions like flu etc. How would they perform surgery? Also this whole "barter" is just regressi

by qnsi 7y ago

sounds like a solution to help each other with easy to treat conditions like flu etc. How would they perform surgery? Also this whole "barter" is just regressing to the times without one of the most important innovation, money. Going without money because you don't like capitalism is like cutting the Internet cord because you don't like Google

_bxg1 7y ago
Money is the very problem. Capitalism pushes prices towards whatever brings in the most profit, not towards what does the most good for the most people. Those two things can align to varying degrees in different domains, but in healthcare they are extremely divergent. Any solution to the healthcare problem requires either artificially warping the market, or circumventing it. Single-payer healthcare is an example of the former; the bartering idea is an example of the latter. I'm not going to place a bet on barter-based healthcare taking the country by storm, but it's good to see people experimenting with alternate systems, especially when this one seems to be working in at least this small test case.
- jmpman 7y ago
  From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs?
  - _bxg1 7y ago
    I don't believe pure communism can ever work, but yeah, I agree with the principle of this statement.
- qnsi 7y ago
  I am not that knowledgable, I study at business university with some economics classes. In my understanding, in monopoly there is an incentive towards rising prices to gain the biggest profit. In competitive models, market price is getting lowered until profits reach 0 for all companies. This is of course ideal. I am capitalism biased, mostly because my parents lived under communism, and after it ended Poland achieved great growth (inequality has risen, so there are people with other views) https://www.theglobalist.com/poland-economy-gdp-european-union/ https://www.theglobalist.com/poland-economy-gdp-european-uni... This portal seems to be biased, but article has some info about what improved in Poland One thing that is the big topic now, is healthcare. Of course there is no gain in comparing developed country like USA to Poland, but our healthcare is one of the worst in EU. Czech Republic, not that richer and also post-communist has much better place regarding healthcare (12th in Europe, Poland is 31st) I hope I didn't bore you, maybe perspective from forgotten part of the world is interesting for you Estonia and Slovenia are also high in the list. Estonia has competetive system. Slovakia has more centralized system I think, but they spend a lot of GDP % on healthcare I think.

by qnsi 7y ago

_bxg1 7y ago

Money is the very problem. Capitalism pushes prices towards whatever brings in the most profit, not towards what does the most good for the most people. Those two things can align to varying degrees in different domains, but in healthcare they are extremely divergent. Any solution to the healthcare problem requires either artificially warping the market, or circumventing it. Single-payer healthcare is an example of the former; the bartering idea is an example of the latter. I'm not going to place a bet on barter-based healthcare taking the country by storm, but it's good to see people experimenting with alternate systems, especially when this one seems to be working in at least this small test case.

jmpman 7y ago
From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs?
- _bxg1 7y ago
  I don't believe pure communism can ever work, but yeah, I agree with the principle of this statement.
qnsi 7y ago
I am not that knowledgable, I study at business university with some economics classes. In my understanding, in monopoly there is an incentive towards rising prices to gain the biggest profit. In competitive models, market price is getting lowered until profits reach 0 for all companies. This is of course ideal. I am capitalism biased, mostly because my parents lived under communism, and after it ended Poland achieved great growth (inequality has risen, so there are people with other views) https://www.theglobalist.com/poland-economy-gdp-european-union/ https://www.theglobalist.com/poland-economy-gdp-european-uni... This portal seems to be biased, but article has some info about what improved in Poland One thing that is the big topic now, is healthcare. Of course there is no gain in comparing developed country like USA to Poland, but our healthcare is one of the worst in EU. Czech Republic, not that richer and also post-communist has much better place regarding healthcare (12th in Europe, Poland is 31st) I hope I didn't bore you, maybe perspective from forgotten part of the world is interesting for you Estonia and Slovenia are also high in the list. Estonia has competetive system. Slovakia has more centralized system I think, but they spend a lot of GDP % on healthcare I think.