3 ms·

I don't think we're on opposing sides of the argument. I agree with a lot of your points. Note that some of your proposals are actually asking for more regulat

I don't think we're on opposing sides of the argument. I agree with a lot of your points. Note that some of your proposals are actually asking for more regulation. For example, employer provided insurance is "subsidized" from your paycheck. It's part of the total cost of your employment. I completely agree with you though. If employers just paid you an extra $20k/year (conservative estimate of group health insurance for a single employee with a wife and a kid) and let you shop around for insurance, it would lead to cheaper health care costs. However, you would have to interfere with the labor market to achieve it by introducing laws that prevented employers from offering group health insurance plans as a fringe benefit. If you did this, who says they would then pass the savings on to their employees as a raise unless you also included that requirement in the new regulations. The point of all this being that free markets are unicorns. It's really all a balancing act and there are so many ripple effects from anything we change about the system, there is no way to predict the outcome beforehand.

yummyfajitas 13y ago
It would probably be sufficient to equalize the tax treatment of employer provided insurance and wages (currently insurance is paid for with pre-tax dollars, wages with post-tax dollars).
deelowe 13y ago
Yeah. Though I'm fairly libertarian in my beliefs, I'm in full favor of regulation that encourages competition(e.g. setting up commodities markets to deal with the utilities/necessary monopolies issues). > If you did this, who says they would then pass the savings on to their employees as a raise unless you also included that requirement in the new regulations. No one. It's a tough pill to swallow, but it's one we need to take ASAP. > The point of all this being that free markets are unicorns. They are when a "free market" country fails to recognize that it's really ran by crony capitalism and corporatism. I firmly believe at this point that corporations and the laws surrounding them(e.g. the ones that treat them the same as an individual, or better) undermines the whole concept of a free market.

yummyfajitas 13y ago

It would probably be sufficient to equalize the tax treatment of employer provided insurance and wages (currently insurance is paid for with pre-tax dollars, wages with post-tax dollars).

deelowe 13y ago

Yeah. Though I'm fairly libertarian in my beliefs, I'm in full favor of regulation that encourages competition(e.g. setting up commodities markets to deal with the utilities/necessary monopolies issues). > If you did this, who says they would then pass the savings on to their employees as a raise unless you also included that requirement in the new regulations. No one. It's a tough pill to swallow, but it's one we need to take ASAP. > The point of all this being that free markets are unicorns. They are when a "free market" country fails to recognize that it's really ran by crony capitalism and corporatism. I firmly believe at this point that corporations and the laws surrounding them(e.g. the ones that treat them the same as an individual, or better) undermines the whole concept of a free market.