Leave a comment

Comments 68

underlankers March 10 2011, 19:05:01 UTC
In a free market people would still be trusting quacks and snake-handlers, not medical doctors. They'dve probably have been better off with them compared to what free market medicine of the European variant was.

Reply

rasilio March 10 2011, 19:10:22 UTC
You mean they don't today?

People still trust quacks and snake oil salesmen, a lot of them are even FDA sanctioned, having government regulation of the medical field cannot change this because it is inherent in the nature of people.

The fact is however that most people are going to gravitate to the Doctors with the best records of success whether the government says they work or not.

Reply

underlankers March 10 2011, 19:11:18 UTC
I'm referring to the glory days of private medicine from the 5th-18th Centuries, before those evil socialists like Queen Victoria and Abraham Lincoln established actual standards for doctors and medicine.

Reply

rasilio March 10 2011, 19:18:56 UTC
Oh you mean that time when science had not advanced enough to understand the germ theory of disease.

Yeah sure that is still a relevant topic when discussing health care TODAY.

Reply


the_rukh March 10 2011, 19:19:41 UTC
Yes Greed exists, but in a free market its effect is largely minimized

waaaaaaaaaoooooooowwwwwww.

Reply


mijopo March 10 2011, 19:50:17 UTC
I think there's already a post about this: http://community.livejournal.com/talk_politics/923582.html

Reply

bex March 10 2011, 19:52:23 UTC
There is, but it lacks "free market" fellation, so... y'know. Because we'd all be so much better off without the FDA.

Reply

htpcl March 10 2011, 19:52:23 UTC
And?

Reply


mijopo March 10 2011, 19:52:37 UTC
Now of course the typical leftie out there will call this a market failure and an example of why we cannot trust the free market because of corporate greed like this.

I'm a pretty typical leftie and that's not what I said:

http://community.livejournal.com/talk_politics/923582.html?thread=71101118#t71101118

Reply

gunslnger March 10 2011, 22:17:15 UTC
I don't know why you'd like to think you're a typical leftie, but you aren't actually.

Reply

mrsilence March 10 2011, 23:50:47 UTC
If you're judging by that comment, I have to say that's fairly consistent to my position too, particularly the part about government endorsed monopolies with no price controls.

Maybe I'm not a typical lefty either, but I think a goodly proportion of lefties would not violently disagree with that particular statement.

Reply

terminator44 March 11 2011, 00:31:01 UTC
How would price controls make it better? That would just lead to a shortage like price controls always have.

Reply


capthek March 10 2011, 20:09:32 UTC
Your use of the term 'market failure' betrays a complete lack of understanding of the term or apparently economics. Sadly this is rather typical of conservative posters.

The theory of 'market failure' still assumes that the market or capitalist economy works perfectly when distributing goods and services and there are external things to it that create the problems such as the one you discuss. People on the left are just as likely to say that 'market failure' does not exist because the market economy is supposed to over charge for things and have all sorts of problems because it is the system itself that is flaws and/or imperfect. A system is not in failure if it's goals are to soak the poor in favor of the rich.

I mean, you could at a very minimum read a wiki entry on terms you wish to use beforehand.

Reply

rasilio March 10 2011, 20:13:51 UTC
You might have a point if I called it a market failure.

I did not, I used the phrase that way very specifically because it is the sort of argument against free market economics you typically see presented, economic ignorance and all

You also might have a point if I was actually a Conservative and not a libertarian, which is also known as a Classical Liberal.

Reply

rasilio March 10 2011, 20:14:44 UTC
Sorry screwed up the bolding on the earlier post and since I don't have a paid account I can't edit it. Figured it would be easier to delete and repost

Reply

capthek March 10 2011, 20:20:22 UTC
I understand, used to happen to me all the time.

Reply


Leave a comment

Up