Laugh out Loud at Those Saying the new Health Insurance law is a Net Gain

In fact, this whole episode is a very disturbing revelation of how Americans who support these new laws are very, very ignorant of economics. I was just reading some comments at talkingpointsmemo.com. Here is a real gem:

ACTUAL COMMENT AT TALKING POINTS MEMO
"This is not true. First the exchanges guarantee competition and downward price pressure by incorporating insurance companies and nonprofit into competitive pools. Second from what level have the subsidies been lowered?
Making young and healthy people buy insurance will also drive down the cost. The fact that so many do not buy insurance now is one of the reasons it is so expensive, but I will not go into that right now."

Laugh out loud!

The insurance companies have to be "incorporated into competitive pools".

Laugh out loud extra big!

"Making young and healthy people buy insurance will also drive down the cost"

Laugh out loud extra big!

And the ultimate laugh out loud:

"The fact that so many do not buy insurance now is one of the reasons it is so expensive, but I will not go into that right now."

I mean seriously that was one of the funniest things I have seen in years. (Why couldn't this person not "go into it" right now? Maybe because what he said was bat squeeze crazy?)

But what is very, very disturbing is that the kind of rank and humorous economics ignorance shown by these comments to a large degree underlies the new laws themselves as well as the debate about them. I mean, the comments are seldom this ignorant and humorous, but every single pro law comment and article is ignoring or is ignorant of the laws of economics to one extent or another.

Americans think they are immune from the laws of economics, that they don't, for example, have to worry about things like percentage of the GDP sucked up by health care. ("Only the little countries worry about such things and only the little people pay taxes," laugh out loud.) But I am afraid that no one and nothing is immune from the laws of economics, and that Americans will continue to find out the hard way that they are not. In fact, anyone rooting for the American economy to collapse even more so than it already has should be in favor of the new health insurance laws.

The above was in response to this article at Common Dreams.