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This is a perfect example of why libertarians are chuckleheads. If we just “unleash the free market” on health care, prices would plummet!
A few things.
1. But would people actually get health care?
2. Who is going to make sure that the preconditions for a free market are met? https://twitter.com/LawyerJailhouse/status/1315321736083062784">https://twitter.com/LawyerJai...
A few things.
1. But would people actually get health care?
2. Who is going to make sure that the preconditions for a free market are met? https://twitter.com/LawyerJailhouse/status/1315321736083062784">https://twitter.com/LawyerJai...
Free markets don’t just *happen* in a vacuum. And “free market” doesn’t just mean “no government regulation.”
You need, among other things:
* perfect information
* easy entry and exit into the market
* low transaction costs
You need, among other things:
* perfect information
* easy entry and exit into the market
* low transaction costs
So how do we get from where we are in the health care market—where you have literally no idea what a procedure will cost or if someone attending your procedure is in your network—to a free market?
Who is providing this perfect information about how a drug or a procedure functions for a certain use?
How do you prevent price gouging for emergent conditions where choice is sharply limited by exigency?
How do you prevent price gouging for emergent conditions where choice is sharply limited by exigency?
A lot of the things that government does—things like FDA oversight—exist because we are trying to make the market function *better*.
(Some of the things are a function of regulatory capture.)
(Some of the things are a function of regulatory capture.)
In the absence of a government, who is going to actually tell us if drugs work, and what circumstances they work under? Do you have a patent administration? Who makes sure that generic drugs made after expiration of a patent are sufficiently identical to the patented drug?
You can wave a flag saying “free markets for all!”
But how do you get to a free market? It’s not a given!
But how do you get to a free market? It’s not a given!
I do not subscribe to free markets as a religion. I think that markets are a valuable tool that often does a great job of correctly distributing resources.
I think that the lack of money that many people have distorts the resource-distribution capability of markets, because demand may exceed the current supply, but we’ve artificially thwarted people’s ability to signal demand by reducing their income.
I think markets would do a better job, in the fields where they do a good job of districting resources, if we had a higher minimum wage.
And I think there are some fields—such as health care—where the information disparity and the exigency means that the profit motive will always inherently end up being exploitative. I think we’ve had *decades* of proof that this is the case.
That’s why I support single payer.
That’s why I support single payer.
I also think that ”private property” isn’t a god-given concept in the way that individual liberty is, but a function of societal choice, and that different societies may need to make different choices.
That’s why I support things like environmental regulations and hefty wealth taxes.
But “free markets! yeah!” is not a cogent political philosophy.
It’s a religion.
It’s a religion.
