The Main Purpose of the "Free Market" Economy is to "Connect Greedy Rich People to Other People's Money"

GUEST COMMENT

Why not? Because unregulated "free" market capitalism is extremely efficient.

Extremely efficient at connecting greedy rich people to other people's money.

What it's not so efficient at is connecting people who are willing to work with jobs that need to be done.

This is because "free" market capitalism can't easily put a dollar value on helping sick people or cleaning up the environment or educating children or any other social good. Since the value of these things is difficult to measure in dollars, the business jerks take the lazy way out and give them a value of zero.

They pose as Captains of Industry, Vigilant Stewards of Wealth and Wise Forecasters of the Market, but all they really are is IN THE WAY.

UNITY PROGRESS COMMENTARY
Very true and well stated.

Until you realize that the "free market" is never really free, and works only in limited ways and in limited circumstances, your economy is never going to amount to much by 21st century standards.

The above guest comment and Unity Progress comment in response were in response to this article at Common Dreams.

An Alternative to Slash and Burn Medicine

GUEST COMMENT

Thinking outside the box, this idea came to me. If anyone would like to add feedback, it would be appreciated.

Years ago when I read, "Inside Job: The Looting of America's Savings and Loans" the book made clear that people with about $100,000 in assets could start their own savings and loans knowing it would be federally insured. (Lots of unscrupulous sorts in fact did so and that led to the S & L Debacle.)

My question is what makes for a legitimate insurance company? What parameters must be hypothetically met?

The reason I raise that question is, what is to stop a large group of conscientious persons from creating their own insurance company/pool?

Today I enjoyed the once-a-month massage I treat myself to as part of MY health care plan. I've always felt that not smoking, eating a light diet with fish and no meat, getting exercise would constitute MY health plan. I know there are thousands, if not millions, who work to maintain good health and would NOT want the types of options this FORCED insurance would entail.

So the next thought that came to me was could some kind of umbrella group form consisting of: massage therapists, acupuncturists, nutritional therapists (particularly those oriented towards whole foods), natural-cure oriented doctors, chiropractors, etc and FOUND a holistic INSURANCE company. People would pay monthly dues and receive reduced costs on regularly scheduled "tune-ups." And then perhaps their insurance would also include an OPTIONAL tier that paid for catastrophic events.

I wonder if thousands or maybe millions would be interested in such a plan, more or less one that was based on "preventative strategies" with benefits? And I wonder what would make it a legitimate "insurer," one that offered treatment options outside the typical slash and burn that defines much of modern medicine as practiced in America today (given it also follows the Mars rules orientation).

I read that there were thousands of health insurance companies, and I also read that many people would be forced to purchase policies through them that would be essentially worthless. Is the government going to monitor each one and stamp it for viability or quality control in a business environment that already chases profit at the expense of allocating legitimate access to medical treatments for far too many?

There is a sizable portion of the US population that shops at holistic markets, eat organic/whole foods, takes preventative health care very seriously, and probably could constitute a large enough pool for such a creative, cutting edge form of insurance.

Anyone have any ideas? Heck, maybe OUR forum could provide the launch pad...

UNITY PROGRESS COMMENTARY
Well it’s a very good idea and I myself am very afraid of the slash and burn health treatments as you called them. There are bad incentives in the system for doctors to over test, over treat, and over medicate their patients.

Think of how great your idea would be in conjunction with single payer that you would automatically have as a citizen if we could defeat both the corporate Republicans and the corporate Democrats.

This is what the rest of the world enjoys: some variation of single payer basic coverage for everyone is the foundation, and then people are completely free to add on to that whatever else they want from the private profit making and the private non-profit sectors. And they are free within the foundation system to seek practitioners who forswear slash and burn medicine. And they are free to never see a doctor if they so choose. This is part of the good life that has been achieved only recently, historically speaking, in many countries throughout the world.

The above guest comment and Unity Progress comment in response were motivated by this article at Common Dreams.

Several Reports About Physicians Refusing to be Slaves of the Health Insurance Industry

Obama has lied about just about everything in the deform. Even for a politician, the number of lies Obama and his spokesmen tell is staggering.

Look what I found just now by sheer accident: an article reporting that physicians are more and more quitting and/or closing their private practices and instead becoming salaried physicians working directly for the government. The article reports that they are doing so due to too many hassles from the insurance companies and due to excessive malpractice insurance premiums (it seems that they are victims of a "one-two knockout punch" by the insurance industry as a whole.):

So whether or not these doctors are too right wing to understand that single payer is the only way to go, at least they are smart enough to remove themselves from the huge burdens imposed on them by the useless insurance industry.

Other articles with similar themes at CNN:

Doctors quitting the profession completely:

Doctors refusing to accept insurance payments:

(The related article website application is a nice one, isn't it?)

Finally, there is this one warning about how Medicare cuts could be devastating in 2010:

You know, actually it is an overstatement to say that the mainstream media never has anything useful to read.

The above was in response to this article.