ACA Repeal/Replace: Progressives Face Moral Dilemma

[David Horn]

(01-26-2017, 06:57 AM)Warren Dew Wrote: There were police and fire departments before 911, as I believe you are old enough to know.  And there's no reason why 911 couldn't dispatch to the appropriate provider; there are things called "databases" these days that could be kept updated by the providers.  However, as I said, I don't have a problem with the present system for police and even fire departments.

As for stretching, you may think I'm too libertarian, but I also regularly argue with anarchocapitalists that have the opposite view and consider me a tool of the state.  In reality, I just happen to be the one that thinks not everything needs to be provided by the state, and not everything needs to be provided by the market, and there's a systematic economic method for distinguishing how things should be provided based on whether and how economic natural monopolies apply.

There are very logical items that should only be provided by private enterprise.  My rules are simple:

1. Is it possible to shop?  For example, my heat pump dies and I need a new one.  Even in the cold of winter, shopping is possible.
   
2. Is there are market?  Here's a dicey situation, because, for example, my electric utility is a monopoly.  Still, I'm OK with a private provider if that provider is fully regulated.
   
3. Do commercial standards apply?  Here's where I have problems with healthcare under a free-market mechanism.  Healthcare requires a huge infrastructure base, including the medical professionals who provide the direct services, but is not in demand until it's needed.  How is this arranged?  There is a market, but it is involuntary.  It applies to the insured and the uninsured, since a broken leg is a broken leg.  The same is true of fire and police services.  I don't need the fire department until I have a fire, or an ambulance until I need emergency transport.  Police are even less tied to direct demands, since they are needed when the  public safety is imperiled, but not otherwise.
   

We use the same logic with the military and other security services.  They are most efficiently supplied through public means, either directly or under contract.  Contract hasn't been all that good, witness the massive excess charges for "contractors" during the Iraq and Afghan Wars.  Logic should apply here, but it runs directly into ideology that argues to the contrary.