4 ms·

If you think the most regulated sector of the economy with all sorts of rent-seeking and barriers to entry is an indictment of libertarianism, you’re more than

• clcaev 5y ago
  Free market principles require an educated buyer in a market with competitive service providers. When you're admitted to an emergency room, there is no shopping around even if you are educated in healthcare enough to know what your options are...
• consumer451 5y ago
  > all sorts of rent-seeking and barriers to entry is an indictment of libertarianism... OK, so if I understand your point, US healthcare is not free-market enough and even more deregulation is the cure. In that scenario even more hungry profit centers are allowed to flourish between the patient and their doctor. But, that is even more "waste" from a patient money -> healthcare provided point of view. What has become apparent to me is that some aspects of civilization are not compatible with privatization. Oof. This was a very bitter pill for me to swallow as my background is having escaped Soviet controlled Europe when I was a child. It has taken a lot of time for me to realize that the ideal solutions for our species may not be at the opposite extreme of ideology. The big realization may have been that solutions in reality are often closer to a tensor than any one-dimensional concept or pure ideology. * Note: by "ideal solutions for our species," I mean optimizing for the survival of the species, and growth of our technological civilization.