President Trump: The NEW one and only politics thread

People who are getting something that is being subsidized forcibly by others are happy with what they are receiving. Why is that surprising?

Medicare has done more to drive up health care costs in the aggregate in this country since the 1960s than any thing. To answer your question, before the advent of Medicare and Medicaid in 1965, and then followed up by the HMO Act of 1973 (the effects of which, shouldn't be understated), individuals paid half of the total health costs in this country out-of-pocket, three-quarters of the country's health care expenditures were funded privately. ... and the most important takeaway from that is that health care inflation was in-line for decades with the consumer price index (which actually had meaning back then because it wasn't being constantly tinkered with to benefit politicians' agendas).

Then some people decided to fix everything.

Since the mid 1960s when Medicare was brought on , it has sent health care costs skyrocketing relative to the CPI. And has plain created a mess. Which was entirely predictable by anyone who understands what putting regulatory anchors over any market and imposing various forms of price controls over segments of that market are going to do.

We live in a world of scare resources. We get the most efficient allocation of those resources when people are left to their own devices -- and they transact freely making decisions for themselves. But everyone loves a politician who promises that they can allocate things in a way that creates something for nothing -- even if the bullshit should send up warning signals to even the biggest idiot.

And give someone any sort of entitlement, yeah, you are correct. People LOVE when someone else bears the cost of them getting something. When societally we pay the price for that cost in a drastic way. ... well, then everyone doesn't love it so much. Too bad, there are so many dishonest (or just plain blind) people who refuse to connect the causes and the effects of things.