Controlling health care costs is a goal of so-called “socialized medicine”, a goal that the free market seems either unable or unwilling to embrace. Reducing those costs, and shifting some of them to the overall tax burden would make it easier for the average person to afford health care, and easier for employers to provide it for their workers. Either way, that will make us more competitive with other countries.

Every civilized country in the world does this, the fact we are the only one that bitterly resists it cannot be swept under the rug any longer, or cavalierly dismissed as the first step down a slippery slope to Communist enslavement. That is utter bilge. Neither can we dismiss or ignore the statistics that continue to show us falling further and further behind other nations in our overall national health, such as life expectancy and neonatal survival rates.

Oh sure, our health care is second to none, but only for those who can afford it. The alternative is that people (especially the poor, minorities or the aged)either will get sick, die or face bankruptcy when they don’t have to, or their care will simply be shifted onto emergency rooms. None of these options is cost-effective in the long run to the society as a whole.

Government involvement in health care is not without problems, and pointing them out is legitimate and necessary. We need public involvement and debate, from the medical professions, the public, the industry and insurers. And yes, there will be high costs, inefficiency, waste, and downright fraud. But can defenders of a laissez-faire health system claim their way is free of any of these drawbacks? Isn’t having market forces culling our excess population just as reprehensible (and much more likely) than the dreaded “death panels”. And can we tolerate any further the reasoning that I suspect really drives opposition to any form of government involvement at all?

“I can afford health insurance. Why should I be taxed to help take care of those who can’t?”

The same perverse argument could be made for every other function of government; most of us pay school taxes even after our kids grow up, or even if we have no kids at all. We owe it to our country, and to our fellow citizens, particularly those most unfortunate among us. Its the patriotic thing to do.

I’m starting to wonder if the whole concept of “money” is a fraud. Everybody is in debt, countries, companies, consumers, banks, everybody. And everybody is cashing in on the party. People have mortgages, car payments and credit card debt. I’ve never heard of any government anywhere ever being in the black. (We have had an occasional budget surplus, but we’ve always had a national debt.) No company, even highly profitable ones, uses its cash reserves to finance expansion, they always borrow money. And the financial experts tell us we should not pay off our mortgages, but take advantage of the low interest rate and invest our spare cash instead. “You can always re-finance.” Sure, they collect their vigorish off the top, and promptly lend that out to someone else. Of course that’s what they are going to counsel you to do. And like the greedy chumps we are, we fall for it.

Gold, currency, checks, bank ledger entries, digital data transfers in remote computers…none of this is real. Its all symbolic. I’m not saying we should deliberately go into debt. But haven’t you noticed that everybody who is “rich” owes more money than they’ve got. I’ve never declared bankruptcy, I’m totally out of debt, and I’ve got money in the bank: Donald Trump can’t say that, but I’m better looking than he is and his wife is better looking than mine.

And who is all this inflated debt OWED to, anyway? What can they possibly do with all that phony money, besides loan it to someone else? By definition, it exceeds the total value of everything in the world; its all been “printed”, it’s not “real”. So what do we do, go onto the gold standard? Gold is a metal with only limited industrial uses. It’s intrinsically worth a great deal less than copper. It is no different from a banknote, its just harder to carry around in your pocket.

The only things of real value are earth resources which can be potentially converted to real goods and services that can satisfy real human needs and desires, and the human labor that makes that conversion possible. Matter and energy. Everything else is just bookkeeping. Little marks on paper that don’t mean shit.

1.6 Trillion to date. I’m sure you understand the consequences.

This thing is not over.

The Future of Quantitative Easing

http://www.peri.umass.edu/236/hash/31e2ff374b6377b2ddec04deaa6388b1/publication/566/

Quelle surprise!

Here.