President Trump: The NEW one and only politics thread

That's just silly. Public health is obviously a public good. One of the motivators behind Britain's National Health Service was how many working class draft-eligible age men were medically unfit to serve in the Armed Forces in WW1 and WW2.

 

Speaking of Britain, how is Charlie Gard doing?

 

You're not even trying. A public good is, by definition, one that NOBODY gets UNLESS it's provided collectively.

 

We'll just hire a mercenary army. The best army.

 

Why should I care whether health care fits some specific economic definition of a public good or not?

 

In a utopian bubble, that first graph sounds pretty good. But that process isn't always that easy. Companies might pay folks to boost yelp ratings. They might find ways to make comparison shopping either expensive or onerous. Folks are pretty good at creating a variety of transaction costs to make that comparison shopping (and the execution of moving from provider to provider) much more daunting.

On that second graph, if one's child is in the NICU, they, in that moment, would probably pay an absurd sum of money to see their child healthy and at home. They might pay enough to ruin themselves going forward. Since people might be willing to do that to themselves, we would say it's in their interest? Interesting.

I don't know if it's an entitlement or not. It's sure been treated like one in a lot of places. Maybe that perfect marketplace would just fall into being. Most likely it wouldn't, one way or another. And the world being what it is, us not liking the idea of folks getting priced out of their lives or dying when it can reasonably be helped, it'll always be a pipe dream.

 

Plainly we are fools for ignoring all the street demonstrations in England and Germany and Canada and Japan and the rest of the G-20 countries with people demanding their health care switch to the Murica! Fuck Yeah! model.

 

Has Faux News done a story on this recently?

 

Health care is a different kind of market failure. There is no reasonable way for a person to value their life against monetary assets.

 

"No" to the notion of transgender
by Ronald Gold

“What is transgender? Well, there are two sorts who seem to be covered
by the name, the drag kings and queens so good at portraying cartoon
imitations of straight people, and transsexuals, the folks who report
that from an early age they've felt themselves trapped in the wrong
bodies. Despite the equipment they were born with that belies their
assertions, they say they are really men or really women.

“What does it mean to be really a man or a woman? Since it's not about
genitalia, it must be about personality, and what, one asks, is a male
or a female personality? Even straight people nowadays concede that
some men are the warm, loving type that used to be thought exclusive
to women, and some women are the strong, action-oriented sort that
used to be thought exclusive to men. And lesbians and gay men have
always known that people of the same gender can be very different from
each other. Isn't it true that those we form mated relationships with
are always complementary - even polar opposites - to ourselves?

“Let me state it categorically. There is no such thing as a male or
female personality. Personality is not a function of gender.

“So where does that put the concept of transgender? In my view, down
the tubes! And that leaves the further questions of how transsexuals
got to think the way they do, and what to do to resolve their
dilemmas. I hope I'll be forgiven for rejecting as just plain silly
the idea that some cosmic accident just turned these people into
changelings. What happened, more than likely, is that, from an early
age, when they discovered that their personalities didn't jibe with
what little boys and girls are supposed to want and do and feel, they
just assumed they mustn't be real little boys and girls.

“So, parents of such little boys and girls, do not take them to the
psychiatrist and treat them like they're suffering from some sort of
illness. Explain to them that, whatever the other kids say, real
little girls do like to play with trucks and wear grimy jeans, and
real little boys like to prance around in dresses and play with dolls.
And make sure the teachers are on the same page.

“As for adults struggling with what to do about their feelings, I'd
tell them too to stay away from the psychiatrists - those prime
reinforcers of sex-role stereotypes - and remind them that whatever
they're feeling, or feel like doing, it's perfectly possible with the
bodies they've got. If a man wants to wear a dress or have long hair;
if a woman wants short hair and a three-piece suit; if people want
romance and sex with their own gender; who says they can't violate
these perfectly arbitrary taboos? A short historical and
cross-cultural survey should establish that men and women have worn
and done all sorts of stuff. I recall reading something by Jan Morris
in which it seemed that he thought he needed a sex change because he
wanted men to hold doors open for him and kiss him goodbye at train
stations. For starters, I'd have told him that I've had these nice
things happen to me and I've still got my pecker.

“Perhaps it isn't needless to say that a No to the notion of
transgender does not excuse discrimination against cross-dressers or
post-op transsexuals in employment, housing and public accommodation;
and I strongly support legislation that would forbid it. I would,
however, get after the doctors - the psychiatrists who use a phony
medical model to invent a disease that doesn't exist, and the surgeons
who use such spurious diagnoses to mutilate the bodies of the deluded.”

 

Because his point wasn't about healthcare organizations (many without shareholders). It was about healthcare as a concept. It would be like saying, why are police not a business? And having the answer involve the mechanics of how municipalities run them. You knew what he was getting at, but decided to answer another question and then ask how someone could willfully do such a thing.

You also forgot the most important comparison. Both business and health care orgs sell products and services. And if those are are the same, then it's fair to categorize a child's healthcare as needing to be treated the same as their travel ball team (or hell, a truckstop blowjob, also a servie) because in the end they're just services in the big ole marketplace.