Doctors and politicians think alike

Doctors and politicians think alike - most of each don't understand the market. As you can read here in this article, the Massachusetts health care plan for "all" is in need of more money. The politicians who rammed this through a few years ago, including former governor Mitt Romney, don't understand that you can't repeal the fundamental laws of economics. The inevitable always occurs when you introduce socialism into a system: long lines, shortages, higher costs, less quality, and ultimately, rationing.

Not amazingly, in Sunday's Houston Chronicle (April 27), two doctors wrote a short op-ed calling for more socialism, in this case, a "single-payer" system. The "single-payer" is the government. They state that "free market plans will not work." Well, we used to have a free market in health care and it worked just fine. Then two massive interventions, one in 1965 and another in 1973, destroyed the market and created the terrible situation we have today.

Come on docs, stick to what you know: medicine. Stop dabbling in a field you just proved you know nothing about - economics. The only solution is a complete free-market health care system. Prices will drop dramatically, quality will rise, and the debate will be removed from the American news every night. You don't hear the news debating the continued rise in computer, dvd, shirt, or hamburger costs, do you? Oh yeah, that's right, we have a market in those.

Time to watch Gattaca again

In the movie Gattaca with Ethan Hawke, Jude Law and Uma Thurman, the state has collected the DNA of everyone on the planet. Futuristic for sure, and it could never happen to us, right? Well, the state has just announced they will begin the process in Amerika, I mean America. Read the article here, and remember 2008 when you're getting your mouth swabbed in the future.

People want another New Deal?

Thanks to mises.org for posting a nice, short article about how some are now calling for a new New Deal. Why would we want another round of government agencies that interfere in the market with the inevitable result that we will all be less prosperous? The New Deal was a disaster and prolonged the Great Depression. Its long list of new agencies, bureaus, departments, and commissions spent billions while Americans were waiting on bread lines. The AAA, or Agricultural Adjustment Administration, paid farmers to plow under their crops and murder their livestock!

Please, pundits, learn some history and economics. Stop calling for more government interference in the economy and violations of our property rights. Isn't 70 years of Keynesian economics enough?

U.S. shoots itself in the foot once again

History shows that most, if not all, of U.S. intervention abroad eventually comes back to haunt us. As you read this article, ask yourself if it is happening once again. Have we actually made Iran stronger and in a better position than they were in five years ago? Is this yet another example of the U.S. shooting itself in the foot?

(thanks to antiwar.com for the link to this article)

Don't you just love government medicine?

As with all government-run socialist schemes, the government is the ultimate decider. Here, a woman is turned down for surgery because she's too old. Wow, 61 is too old? It's all too predictable and history is our guide: long lines, shortages, higher taxes, less quality, and ultimately, rationing. That's what you get when you socialize goods and services.
(Thanks to lewrockwell.com for a link to the article)

The Great Depression

With a severe recession looming, there is occasional talk about the Great Depression of the 1930's. Gene Smiley has written a short book, Rethinking the Great Depression, that is a good introduction. It's not as good as Murray Rothbard's America's Great Depression, but it's a good start and is somewhat easier to follow for the neophyte to history and economics.

In the preface, Smiley correctly sums up what every American should be taught but unfortunately are not: "Government efforts to control and direct the gold standard for national purposes brought on the depression. Once it began, government actions, particularly in the United States, caused it to be much longer and much more severe. When the contraction finally ended, government interference in U.S. markets made the recovery unbearably slow and in 1937-1938 brought on a 'depression within a depression.' The 1930's economic crisis is tragic testimony to government interference in market economies."

Dead on point. Unfortunately, an overwhelming majority of history, government, and economics professors, most of whom have always been in academia and have never held a job in the private sector, blame the "free market" and teach students that the government saved the day. They then teach that government is something we need more of and that surrendering your property (hard-earned income) is something to be applauded.

Soviet style education

You couldn't pay me enough to live in the People's Republic of California. That state is the closest thing to one of the former republics in the former Soviet Union, may it rest in peace. As always throughout history, whether it be countries, states, provinces, or empires, whenever you try to repeal the fundamentals of economics, failure is the result. Here's another amazing article that states how California's school system is melting down.

What's the governator to do?