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 | Thursday, April 30, 2009 at 9:29:05 mst
Comment ID: #1
Name: brian0918
E-mail: my handle through gmail
URL: http://reality.ohio.newintellectuals.org
Thanks Paul and Tod. These will come in handy at our future events. I've also submitted a request to The Undercurrent to get copies of their Spring edition. Apparently they may release a summer edition just to fulfill all the requests they've received. |
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| Thursday, April 30, 2009 at 13:21:00 mst
Comment ID: #2
Name: Jonathan Blazw
E-mail: jon(at)blaze.com
Doctors, Ayn Rand wrote, are not servants of their patients. They are “traders, like everyone else in a free society, and they should bear that title proudly, considering the crucial importance of the services they offer.”
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I agree with this statement in theory. The problem is that greed-fueled doctors got together to lobby for government controls to prevent competition by limiting the number of doctors that are available, thus effectively circumventing the free market for health care and destroying any real hopes for "free-market medicine" down the line.
This led to a doctor shortage, which led to doctors financially raping their patients do to high demand for ther services. This leads to high health care costs, people who can't get insured and afford insurance, etc etc.
If the doctors only played fair in the beginning and didn't try to actively prevent others from getting a piece of the pie, this whole health-care situation would not exist.
Corruption exists at the very core of the medical profession. You want "free-market medicine" now? Too late. You should have been clamoring for free-market medicine back when the AMA was lobbying the government to stop opening medical schools. You should have been railing against government interference in medicine back then. Maybe it would have done something. But for now, I recommend you just enjoy your over-inflated salary and wait for the government to finally correct the damage that physician greed has caused. |
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| Thursday, April 30, 2009 at 14:49:45 mst
Comment ID: #3
Name: Jonathan Blaze
E-mail: jon(at)blaze.com
In effect, what is happening right now in medicine isn't much different from Wall Street.
Ever since medical lobbying groups like the AMA interfered with the free-market, physician salaries skyrocketed due to decreased supply. Physician salaries have been on a bubble of sorts, caused by the artifical market constraints. However, the current system of paying a radiologist 400k a year to read x-rays is completely unsustainable. Doctors have been gaming the system, just like Wall Street, playing the whole "Get the money while you can" game.
Of course, health-care is now paying the price for its excess. We finally have a president whose administration is brave enough to stand up to these crooks known as physicians. |
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| Thursday, April 30, 2009 at 14:50:19 mst
Comment ID: #4
Name: Jonathan Blaze
E-mail: jon(at)blaze.com
In effect, what is happening right now in medicine isn't much different from Wall Street.
Ever since medical lobbying groups like the AMA interfered with the free-market, physician salaries skyrocketed due to decreased supply. Physician salaries have been on a bubble of sorts, caused by the artifical market constraints. However, the current system of paying a radiologist 400k a year to read x-rays is completely unsustainable. Doctors have been gaming the system, just like Wall Street, playing the whole "Get the money while you can" game.
Of course, health-care is now paying the price for its excess. We finally have a president whose administration is brave enough to stand up to these crooks known as physicians. |
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| Friday, May 1, 2009 at 6:10:09 mst
Comment ID: #5
Name: Michael Smith
E-mail: msppp1(at)bellsouth.net
Jonathan Blaze wrote:
"The problem is that greed-fueled doctors got together to lobby for government controls to prevent competition by limiting the number of doctors that are available, thus effectively circumventing the free market for health care and destroying any real hopes for "free-market medicine" down the line."
Even if this is true, the proper response is to stop the rights-violation that is occuring in the form of those "government controls" that prevent competition -- stop it by repealing those controls and restoring freedom.
However, judging by your praise of Obama as a "president brave enough to stand up to these crooks", you appear to be arguing that the existence of one rights-violation -- the existence of one set of government controls manipulated by physicians -- justifies additonal rights violations in the form of additional controls. That is the classic statist tactic -- to claim that problems created by one set of government controls justifies and demands additional controls.
But one wrong cannot justify a second wrong. One violation of rights doesn't justify an additional violation of rights.
Or, if you want it in simpler language, two wrongs don't add up to a right -- they are simply two wrongs.
That's why the following thing you wrote is also false:
"You want "free-market medicine" now? Too late."
That's like me claiming that if I poke you in the eye with a stick-- and you don't manage to stop me from doing so -- I then have the right to shoot you through the heart, on the grounds that it is now "too late" for you to protest against your murder.
Your argument is nonsense - like almost everything proposed by your "brave president". |
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| Friday, May 1, 2009 at 12:31:02 mst
Comment ID: #6
Name: Jonathan Blaze
E-mail: jon(at)blaze.com
Unfortunately, the medical lobbying groups (usually run by doctors) have crippled our current system, creating such drastic shortages of doctors by circumventing the free-market.
From the 1980's to 2002, we should have been building many more medical schools to account for population growth and longer life spans. But medical lobbying groups prevented this, claiming to prevent an "oversupply" of doctors in the market. Anyone with half a brain can tell that this was pure market manipulation to insure greater demand and higher salaries. See this link: http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2005-03-02-doctor-shortage_x.htm
So here we are today with our 'rising health care costs' and 'doctor shortage'. There is really nothing that can be done. Perhaps a huge push to build more hospitals and medical schools ASAP, but this is not feasible. And most likely, doctors who have been raping the system for decades would oppose this vigorously. What incentive do doctors really have to control costs? They know that people will pay anything for their health. The higher 'health care costs' go, the more money that goes into a doctor's pocket.
See, that's the whole problem, the greed of doctors has lead to a medical undersupply which has led to decreased health and wellness of the American populace. So much for "Do no harm", eh? While an individual doctor can be trusted to look after his patient's health, doctors as a whole cannot be trusted to self-regulate their industry, because they are putting profits before the general health and welfare of American citizens, similar to the behavior of any other cartel.
And what happens when the federal government comes across a cartel operating unscrupulously? They BUST IT UP. And this is exactly what the Obama administration is doing. Selfishness worked, until the selfish decided to get the government involved to promote their agenda. Once that happens, drastic action is needed. |
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| Friday, May 1, 2009 at 14:55:15 mst
Comment ID: #7
Name: Michael Smith
E-mail: msppp1(at)bellsouth.net
Jonathan Blaze wrote:
"And what happens when the federal government comes across a cartel operating unscrupulously? They BUST IT UP."
Oh really? Like the way the Obama administration is "busting up" the United Autoworkers? Or the way the Obama adminstration has "busted up" Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae? Or the way the Obama adminstration has "busted up" the cartel of government-approved, government-controlled securities rating agencies that prepopsterously rated securities containing subprime mortgages "AAA"?
You are obviously evading my previous post and still clinging to the notion that one violation of rights justifies another. I wonder who you think you are fooling? |
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| Thursday, May 7, 2009 at 21:33:41 mst
Comment ID: #8
Name: snatch
E-mail: calexander5(at)sympatico.ca
Swine flu .. What? No such thing.. Careful
Chris |
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