You are viewing a single comment's thread.

view the rest of the comments →

0
2

[–] Proeliator 0 points 2 points (+2|-0) ago 

I have not studied the NHS or had much any experience in the healthcare system in the US either, but I can tell you that the American model is far from a free market. Health insurance companies can't even sell policies across state lines. In my opinion one of the reasons that the health care system in the US is so screwed up is because of insurance and regulations about it. It obfuscates costs and leads to incidents where there are exorbitant costs for things like band-aids and aspirin because of caps on repayments to insurance companies.

I would like to see an end to health insurance all together, and see more places like the Oklahoma surgery center. Health insurance only began because of wage controls put in place by FDR. Companies weren't able to offer employees higher wages, so they gave them health coverage instead. The only time that I see the invisible hand break down is when the government interferes; for example, granting corporate status and special benefits that come with it. Getting rid of some of those special status's is something I can agree with Sanders on.

0
1

[–] Melbourne43 [S] 0 points 1 point (+1|-0) ago 

How about the ever-increasing shift in the distribution of wealth? I don't remember the source but there was a quote about every American seeing themselves as a 'temporarily embarrassed millionaire'. It feels in the last few years that the penny has dropped with the less well-off and that they are waking up to the injustice. They know the game is rigged and they have little hope, they're staring down the barrel of working two or three jobs for a lifetime with crap wages and limited or no healthcare.

0
2

[–] Proeliator 0 points 2 points (+2|-0) ago 

I think that doing some reforms of corporate law would help on one end of the problem of wealth inequality, but the real desired result is the lower income earners gaining wealth. My response is going to sound a bit crazy but what I think is needed is two main changes.

The first one is to simply repeal a ton of regulations. A lot of regulations in the US are written by corporations and lobbyists with the end result of creating a higher barrier to entry in their market. In essence, they make rules that are expensive to comply with so that they have less competition. There are the anecdotal stories of kids lemonade stands being shut down because they didn't get permits, you have to get a license to be able to cut hair, to drive a taxi you need a special medallion that costs hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The second thing is the one that is going to sound a little crazy. Reform the education system by privatizing it. The basis for the public schooling system in the United States is the Prussian schooling system. The Prussians were having difficulty getting enough military recruits and getting the recruits to follow orders. So they instituted a compulsory schooling system that was eventually imported to the United States in the mid 1800's by Horace Mann.

The system teaches the normal subjects like science, math, etc, but in the process of teaching those subjects it also teaches deference to authority, nationalism, and discourages critical thinking. It turns out graduates that can follow orders, do repetitive tasks for 8 hours a day, and regurgitate relevant information. That wasn't a huge problem for the middle class when America had a strong manufacturing base, but when things become more globalized it's cheaper to hire foreign workers. Now we have a generation that doesn't have entrepreneurial vision and doesn't have enough middle class jobs.