4 ms·
Capitalism is not the same thing as a market economy. You can have a market economy where businesses are incentivized to innovate and create business plans that
by UncleMeat 4y ago
Capitalism is not the same thing as a market economy. You can have a market economy where businesses are incentivized to innovate and create business plans that fit an effective niche without separating ownership from labor.
And although there are clear examples where market economies are nimble, there are also clear examples where market economies are fragile or don't actually produce outcomes that are best for customers or society. A health insurance company that puts most of its innovation effort into finding creative ways to refuse to pay out to its customers while obfuscating this outcome is a natural thing in a market economy.
- WalterBright 4y ago> A health insurance company that puts most of its innovation effort into finding creative ways to refuse to pay out to its customers while obfuscating this outcome is a natural thing in a market economy. Health insurance companies in the US are more or less run by the regulators these days. Obamacare has seen to that, driving out of Washington state all health care providers for self-employed people but one. I have all my other insurance with one company. Their premiums are higher than average. But the times I needed them, they were there with the money and even legal help. They're worth the higher premiums. It's the free market at work.
- UncleMeat 4y agoBut we've got decades of data from health insurance before Obamacare. It isn't like things were peachy before that.
- WalterBright 4y agoHealth insurance diverged from free markets back in the 1940s when health care got tied to your job due to the way it was taxed.
- UncleMeat 4y agoThat's still a market economy rather than a command economy. If you want, I can point at gazillions of other industries where markets have led to obviously suboptimal outcomes. Command economies have major problems and may be worse in almost all circumstances but "markets make everything good" is just observably false.
- dnissley 4y agoI thought the way that health insurance got tied to employment was through government incentives for employers to do so? E.g. not being taxed when provided as a benefit
- UncleMeat 4y agoThat's still a market. Employers choose among many different insurance options. Employees choose employers in part because of benefits.
- WalterBright 4y agoThe government distortion of the market via tax policy made it much harder to select health insurance providers based on their merits. Noting this makes it inaccurate to assign blame for such failing on the free market.
- UncleMeat 4y agoGovernment distortion doesn't make it a command economy. Whatever you want to call it, the thing that we have and the thing that libertarians want observably produces shit outcomes in a number of domains. If I can't blame the free market, I can blame the political advocates who claim to want a free market for the specific outcomes of their policies.
- nickpp 4y ago> I can point at gazillions of other industries where markets have led to obviously suboptimal outcomes Please do.