no third solution

Blogging about liberty, anarchy, economics and politics

Category Archives: Health Care

Of Guns, Canadian Healthcare, Taxes, and the Big Three Bailout

March 18th, 2009

It seems Obama wants to ban every gun under the sun except for Airsoft rifles and Super-Soaker waterguns. Time to reiterate: The State can rarely protect you from other individuals, and it cannot conceivably protect you from itself.

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In the past decade, the Big Three were only able to stay afloat because of easy credit. It’s been said elsewhere that they were essentially using motor vehicle sales as a loss-leader, while their real profit center was financing. When the credit crunch hit, the profit center evaporated. Now, they’re asking for your money in the form of bailouts and subsidized loans, in order to profit from loaning that money back to you. Talk about throwing good money after bad

Here’s an idea: let them go kaput. There are millions of vehicles in unsold inventories that could be auctioned off for pennies on the dollar. Some people say “nobody wants to buy a car from a bankrupt company.” The fact of the matter is that “nobody wants to buy a $30,000 car from a bankrupt company.” Give them the opportunity to pick up that same car at auction, for $10k, and there would be a line out the door. Then, make the components, parts, etc., of these vehicles public domain, and there will be no shortage of people willing to repair or otherwise service them at reasonable prices.

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Remember how certain people pay no taxes, and other people pay only a teensy-weensy bit of taxes, and a small handful of people pay nearly all the taxes? Or that States give tax-preferential treatment to companies choosing to relocate within their borders? Or that municipalities sometimes levy onerous taxes on “big box” retailers? Or on out-of-town guests? Discussing the AIG bailout-bonuses scandal, Chuck Rangel says that the tax code is not “a political weapon.”

Lulz.

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Oh hai: Canadians getting ripped off on the price of generic meds! I can haz socialized healthcare?

National Healthcare FAIL: Japan

February 4th, 2009

Japan has a national health care system. It works so phenomenally well, that a 69-year old bicyclist who collided with a motorcycle was rejected from 14 hospitals yesterday.

What good is national health care, if the hospitals won’t admit the sick or injured?

More than 14,000 emergency patients were rejected at least three times by Japanese hospitals before getting treatment in 2007, according to the latest government survey. In the worst case, a woman in her 70s with a breathing problem was rejected 49 times in Tokyo.

The AP is reporting that recent events like those described above, have put the spotlight on Japan’s “shortage of doctors.” Pity,Japan’s bureaucrats don’t understand the fundamental and immutable laws of economics, one of which dictates that price ceilings result in shortages.

46 Million Uninsured

December 15th, 2008

As long as I’m on a roll blogging about the government’s responsibility for the health care “crisis”, I should point out that the “crisis” is so often imagined, and amounts primarily to political scare tactics, which are used to lull the unthinking public into accepting ever increasing State Socialism. A lot of hullabaloo is made about the “46 million Americans without health insurance,” but Norman Traverse, M.D., editor of HealthMadeEasy.com puts a slightly different spin on that propaganda

Another way of looking at the 46 million, is to say that eight-five percent of Americans have health insurance. Additionally, of that 46 million people “without health insurance”, 28 million of them (or 61% of them) earn more than $50,000 annually.

It may come as a surprise to many, but the Census Bureau data shows that the average uninsured person in the United State makes an above-average income. A great many young Americans who are financially well off and are not covered by their employer, voluntarily choose not to purchase health insurance.

A further 10 million people who are considered “uninsured” aren’t American citizens, and although this fact is not of particular importance IMO, the sleight of hand is important. Traverse does not, as does anyone else competent to speak about such things, that this doesn’t mean they can’t get emergency medical care:

Even though they don’t have health insurance there is a federal law that says that all hospital emergency rooms must treat anyone who comes into the emergency room.

The evidence suggests that many of the “uninsured” could arguably purchase coverage if they wanted to, and the rest of them are covered in the event of catastrophe, or would be covered but do not utilize some other Government program like SCHIP or Medicaid.

The populist “solution” to the “46 million” problems, is to force 28 million of them to buy something they don’t want, and to force the rest of us to pay for yet another welfare program, on top of the programs that are underutilized or ignored by those who allegedly “need” them.

Frankly, the “46 million” figure is one big lie, but it is a number which will figure prominently in the transition to health care socialism.

no third solution

Blogging about liberty, anarchy, economics and politics