Psychological Causes of Political Madness

This is absolutely ridiculous. A difference in political opinion is not a mental disorder.

The major economic difference between a conservative or a liberal concerns one's trust in the free market.

Take health care for example. There is absolutely no way that everyone who wants health care will be able to attain it on the free market. The free market marginalizes those with pre-existing conditions and those forced to obtain individual coverage. Unless you are disabled or ridiculously poor, you don't actually have a choice.

The free market actually works against itself. Given the difficulty of obtaining individual health insurance, there is a major deterrent to starting your own business. For small employers who don't have the resources to offer a quality group plan, they have to endure yet another competitive disadvantage. This results in an economy tilted toward large corporations. As these small employers are squeezed out, the danger of monopoly increases.

For the liberal (or moderate-liberal), this is unacceptable. The free-market approach endorses the idea that some people will just have to go without any health care other than emergency care (it's unavoidable in the current system), whether they want to do so or not.

It doesn't mean that the liberal is a socialist or wants some sort of entitlement. For me, I support universal health care because I think it's the only way to preserve the economy. I support universal health care as a means to both ensure that all citizens can have access to full medical care, no matter where they work or how big their employer is. I think that in the long run, the "free-market" approach to health care will only undermine the free-market approach to everything else.

 

Your assessment is based on the asumption that we have a "free market" system now.

We don't. Haven't for a long time.

To see if your idea of a "free market" system will work in today's world, we would first have to try it.

We haven't. And we won't.

Government intervention caused many of the problems we have today and universal healthcare, as you desire it, will only aggravate them further and cost more at the same time.

 

I do not favor an unregulated market. An unrestrained market would lead to monopolies and eventual complete dominance of the monopolies over society.

 

Why dont all us conservatives just sit back and warch the liberals make the psychiatrist's case for him.

 

Yes, yes. Put me on Prozac for recognizing that companies are designed to make money, no matter the human cost.

I know too much history, especially of the northern factories, to be fooled.

 

For the most part I agree with you. Until the employer began to offer health care, health care was rather cheap.

I have a 43 year old daughter who was born in Md, and their was a lot of Union co.'s and government workers with health care given and I didn't have health care and she cost Dr. and hospital a little over $2,000.00.

My son who is 37 was born at Cartersville, Ga. and very few folks were offered health care and his cost was $100.00 for Dr. and $100.00 for hospital. It looks like health care drives up the price.

I was in Pine Bluff, Ar. and it looked like Dr. and hospital bills were based on the health care offered by the railroad. While working on some land for the church I cut my fingers off with a chain saw. I was about 9 miles from Pine Bluff but a friend of our was there working also and I was told don't go to Pine Bluff but go south, get away from the higher cost (again I didn't have health insurance) which I did and the cost was a lot less and hand is rather good today.

 

Liberals should sit back and see the far right's reaction when they discover that:

1) Social Socurity has gone bankrupt because we paid for too many wars out of its fund and they won't collect anything,

2) Their employer has cancelled their retirement medical and

3) Medicare has gone belly up.


Let them eat cake.

 

SS has been going bankrupt for two decades. Can't blame it's projected insolvency on "wars."

Stefan, I disagree that the free-market works against universal ability to purchase health insurance. The healthcare subeconomy/microeconomy is out of control and fundamentally flawed thanks to many factors. We need drastic solutions. I'm not sure that govt mandated healthcare is the answer. Govt intrusion/mandates tend to drive up costs (look at the economy of Zimbabwe, where its real inflation rate was recently estimated at over 20,000 %) to where average citizens are priced out of the market. The problem is the solution to the unaffordability of health insurance requires drastic measures on the part of providers, insurers, and most notably, very drastic reduction in expectations among consumers. Unless and until these happen, we're never going to see real universal health insurance availablility.

The biggest problem? The fact that we have allowed - and that's we - have allowed the healthcare market to become such a fragmented microeconomy that it's on an island. Market principles can work - but getting them to work requires drastic measures that no one wants. Everyone wants $500,000 healthcare but at a $20 copay. Sorry folks. Ain't gonna work. Consumers, doctors, and insurers are responsible for the health insurance leviathan we have now. All three are going to have to work to slay the dragon.

 

My mother still gets her check every month. No, social security has been flush with cash for the last 20 years. That's because the baby boomers have been in their peak earnings period. I believe the first boomers will retire at age 65 in 3 years. (Some have already retired at 62.) Then you'll see Social Security but even more so Medicare start to go down.

Many companies no longer offer retirement medical including AT&T. Others, like Lucent, have cut benefits for retirees. (people already retired) Lucent simply cut off medical for the spouces of retirees. They and other companies have the right to simply cut all medical benefits to ex-employees already retired. Other companies are replacing retirement medical with Medicare. All of these forces will just take the system down. Oh and two years ago the life expectancy in the U.S. went DOWN for the first time ever.

 

When the liberals started promoting Abortion as a birth control, it destroyed the workforce that would pay for the boomers Social security!

If all the babies that were aborted were in the workforce today, SS would be doing good...

Again, another reason to be prolife.

 

Anyone who runs for president must be at least a little crazy.

 

Roe vs. Wade was passed by a heavily REPUBLICAN Supreme Court.