Here are the issues on Healthcare. This year, so far 900,000 people have been laid off. Cobra cost is very expensive. The entire medical establishment depends on Insurance welfare system. Small employers have a difficult time providing benefits. Companies with less than 30 (I think) employees are not required to provide health benefits. While most people can pay doctor visits out of pocket ($80), it is the hospital cost that will kill you without any insurance. There is a large number of people that take risks because they are not under group health benefit program. Free enterprise does not work for them. People who are under social security, barely make their ends meet after paying auto insurance, utilities etc. Now the older people need drugs that work, such as COX-2 inhibitors like Celebrex which costs $80 to $160 per month. If you add maintenance drugs like blood pressure medicine, price goes up. Go to a senior citizen group like Council on Aging, you will see the problem. I was told by an insurance guy that free enterprise and supply/demand does not work well for the healthcare industry. It is highly regulated in the caregiver's favor. It is a very little supply and very high demand situation. And the supply is strictly regulated in the name of public benefit. So the economic theory may not work here. It is the Greed theory in action.
Health Care Interesting debate. In the UK we have free health care for all - the National Health Service. But it is coming under increasing pressure. The NHS is beloved by almost all in this country, considered virtually a human right. But it is under enormous strain. The cost of drugs and modern medical treatment mean costs have escalated enormously. There are waiting lists, shortages of doctors and a lack of beds. Under Thatcher we allowed in private medical treatment, but this is limited and something of a luxury, but is increasingly being offered by employers as a perk. Charges are being put on more and more things - eye tests, dental work etc. And still the NHS struggles to meet expectations of care. Personally speaking, I think a universal right to equal standards of treatment is something that any civilised country should aim for. It increasingly looks though that with rising costs, there will inevitably be varied standards depending on income levels. The sad truth is that if costs rise unsubsidised, the very nature of the economic principles of medicine suggest that there will always be an underclass with minimal access to health care. We're not there yet in the UK, but I've seen what happens in the US and don't like it. The only solution is higher taxes and state funding of medical research. But I doubt even that would work.
Out of the nutshell... Good thread... People want security and a measure of freedom. Capitalism offers neither. You are either a surf or a usurper--there are no winners without losers. In a capitalist system the true capitalist must be willing to take advantage of all resources. Of these, people are the most useful. The true capitalist must be willing to use people. <b>Dog eat dog.</b> The only social model that I favor is that which is called <b>family</b>. When I think of the effort that my parents expended in their effort to maintain our <b>household</b>--the energy which my wife and I now burn for the same reason--I come to the rational that there is only one root motivation which holds us together and causes us to give our best. If we could extend that to a larger group, we would find ourselves working for eachother, providing for eachother. Of course, this would require a sense of mutual responsibility. So much for idealism.
