Why Private Health Care doesn't work

#355
#355
utgibbs said:
Right.
I'm confusing: "It is that the avenues to express greed had grown so enormously...."
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Here's the whole quote:

''It is not that humans have become any more greedy than in generations past. It is that the avenues to express greed had grown so enormously.''

I can see absolutely nothing that gives even a hint of "virtue" to greed. In fact I take the first sentence to, if not outright contradict that stance, at least put it in perspective as being no worse than any other time. I also don't know how an increase in "avenues to express" anything by default implies virtue.

As communication and commerce has now literally gone global those that are greedy have a larger pond in which to fish. That this is so actually only makes sense though I have no idea where the "virtue" issue comes into play.
 
#356
#356
why do I feel like a friend is telling me about the bar fight and says "you should see the other guy's fist"?
 
#357
#357
utgibbs said:
I'm confusing: "Greed as virtue."

Riiiiiight.

People! That greed was made virtuous has been conventional wisdom for a long time:
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If greed was an accepted virtue (meaning: moral), Bernie Madoff wouldn't be sitting in prison right now. A jury of his peers would have found him not guilty, simply because he would have been doing the morally correct, virtuous and righteous thing.

Was that the case? No.
 
#358
#358
can we all agree that "greed" isn't wanting to keep what you earn but rather it's wanting what someone else has earned and using government or theft to take it?
 
#360
#360
MG1968 said:
can we all agree that "greed" isn't wanting to keep what you earn but rather it's wanting what someone else has earned and using government or theft to take it?
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I can agree with that. But it plays both ways.

This doesn't just apply to social economic re-distribution...it also applies to PACs and the revolving door between government and private industry to achieve sweetheart contracts and legislation for one's particular industry. Banking and Defense are two industries that are very good at this...and this is coming from a guy who makes his living working in the defense industry.
 
#361
#361
rjd970 said:
I can agree with that. But it plays both ways.

This doesn't just apply to social economic re-distribution...it also applies to PACs and the revolving door between government and private industry to achieve sweetheart contracts and legislation for one's particular industry. Banking and Defense are two industries that are very good at this...and this is coming from a guy who makes his living working in the defense industry.
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Greed has been thrown around a lot in this thread.

And it does work both ways. Some do not want to believe that greed stops when the government is involved.
 
#362
#362
BeecherVol said:
Greed has been thrown around a lot in this thread.

And it does work both ways. Some do not want to believe that greed stops when the government is involved.
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I've missed a large portion of this thread, mainly because it exploded after I originally mentioned greed...

But greed has no boundaries. Politicians on both sides are some of the greediest people I've ever seen...
 
#363
#363
VOLatile said:
I've missed a large portion of this thread, mainly because it exploded after I originally mentioned greed...

But greed has no boundaries. Politicians on both sides are some of the greediest people I've ever seen...
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Oh!, so now I know who got all this racket started.:)

I totally agree with your post.
 
#364
#364
BeecherVol said:
Oh!, so now I know who got all this racket started.:)

I totally agree with your post.
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Who else would come in, comment a few times, and not show face for a little while? :p Actually, I had forgotten I was even part of this thread until I read the last page.
 
#369
#369
Greed as virtue has been the received wisdom for forty years. Friedman, Hayek, Greenspan, et al - Ayn Rand with her philosophy of "objectivism". They certainly use a lot of euphamisms - "self-interest of the individual," "freedom" etc, but they certainly have more than their fair share of unguarded moments in the public too. Friedman and Rand are actually always on the Gordon Gekko side.

No one is suggesting the nature and substance of greed has changed. What has changed is our culture's attitude towards it. Before it was regarded (admittedly, by a small minority who govern the culture - and governors are not your elected officials; your elected officials work for them) as a virtue, it had far fewer "avenues for realization."

And what is truly lost is the real incentives of private health care:

1. Create new diseases - check (e.g. erectile dysfunction, depression - "diseases" which just happen to require a steady diet of pharmaceuticals)
2. Inability to stop preventable diseases - check (e.g. malaria, dysentary)
3. Massive inefficiencies - check (every NHS system has better metrics for less cost per person than the US system. This when the US excludes 1/5th of the population while the NHS systems have universal, comprehensive coverage)
 
#370
#370
malaria hasn't been stopped because environmental busybodies created a faux-hysteria over the use of DDT. Bring back DDT use, especially in Africa, and malaria can be wiped out as a threat to human lives.
 
#371
#371
MG1968 said:
malaria hasn't been stopped because environmental busybodies created a faux-hysteria over the use of DDT. Bring back DDT use, especially in Africa, and malaria can be wiped out as a threat to human lives.
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Malaria can be stopped completely with quinine!!!!! A very, very cheap (and all natural) substance.

:Facepalm:

Are you just totally sold out to the Man????
 
#372
#372
MG1968 said:
malaria hasn't been stopped because environmental busybodies created a faux-hysteria over the use of DDT. Bring back DDT use, especially in Africa, and malaria can be wiped out as a threat to human lives.
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and it will get rid of the bed bugs
 
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#373
#373
utgibbs said:
Are you just totally sold out to the Man????
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I find it utterly mind blowing that you of all people ask someone else this question. Virtually everything you propose as a "solution" depends on trusting "the man" almost blindly.
 
#374
#374
utgibbs said:
Malaria can be stopped completely with quinine!!!!! A very, very cheap (and all natural) substance.
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You can't find it in Africa. You have the problems of getting it there, distributing it properly, then having trained doctors there to diagnosis malaria and deliver the treatment. Prevention would be more practical.
 
#375
#375
kptvol said:
You can't find it in Africa. You have the problems of getting it there, distributing it properly, then having trained doctors there to diagnosis malaria and deliver the treatment. Prevention would be more practical.
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Irrelevant. If the healthcare in the US was run by the government, malaria in Africa and around the world would vanish in the fear.
 
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