The single greatest drag on the deficit and middle class purchasing power is exploding health care costs. Over the past 3 decades, Washington has been the target of massive lobbying efforts by the health insurance industry. The most likely job for a vacating senator is to become a drug or health insurance lobbyist.
The Health Insurance Industry has used its pull in Washington to divide the country into fixed no-compete zones. 90% of Iowa only has access to one provider. This means that Blue Cross can raise premiums and decrease services without being disciplined by market competition.
Reagan promised the opposite. He told us that if we let business craft their own regulations - and if, as a result, they made higher profits - those profits would redound to the consumer in the form of better services and more competitive pricing. The opposite has happened.
One of the reasons middle class families can no longer meet the demand requirements of economic growth (through consumption) is because their health care costs have exploded in recent years. They can no longer afford to pay into the monopolies that run health care.
Since the Health Insurance industry pays into Movement Conservatism's network of think tanks, publishing groups, political action committees and media assets, they can shape the opinions of voters. And that is exactly what they have done. Most people on this board have no idea how much health care premiums have risen because of Lobbying; nor do they know that the health care industry is no longer a competitive market. Nor do they know that the USA leads the world in profits by a staggering margin, but is not even in the top twenty when it comes to outcomes. Meaning: we pay top dollar for an increasingly bad product because corporations cut politicians huge checks.
This is where I agree with Republicans. By making Washington so powerful, we have given corporations something to capture. They now devote more money to lobbying than R&D. Their goal is to capture regulatory agencies and politicians for the purpose of using Washington's centralized power to rig markets and fleece the consumer. They don't have to bear the risk and debt associated with innovation if they have a monopoly; meaning: their money is better spent buying politicians.
This is why Libertarians don't like centralized power. Because the very existence of centralized economic levers leads to abuse. The story of post-Reagan capitalism is the story of how corporations - through lobbying pressure and election funding - captured government and set-up monopolies over health care and energy. The result is that we are being slowly bankrupted as a small cadre of people realize dynastic wealth.
We have to make these bastards compete.
What Talk-Radio-Republicans have never understood - because most have not had much advanced education in economics - is that corporate lobbying distorts market outcomes just as much as a bureaucrat who imposes price controls.
(God help us. . . these people vote)
(FYI: This was the biggest fear when Reagan advocated for giving corporations more access to Washington. People said that eventually corporations would use their tremendous financial leverage to staff government. We now have a system where politicians are paid handsomely by corporations to uphold special interests. Corporations and the State have merged to create the most centralized power ever imagined.)
The Health Insurance Industry has used its pull in Washington to divide the country into fixed no-compete zones. 90% of Iowa only has access to one provider. This means that Blue Cross can raise premiums and decrease services without being disciplined by market competition.
Reagan promised the opposite. He told us that if we let business craft their own regulations - and if, as a result, they made higher profits - those profits would redound to the consumer in the form of better services and more competitive pricing. The opposite has happened.
One of the reasons middle class families can no longer meet the demand requirements of economic growth (through consumption) is because their health care costs have exploded in recent years. They can no longer afford to pay into the monopolies that run health care.
Since the Health Insurance industry pays into Movement Conservatism's network of think tanks, publishing groups, political action committees and media assets, they can shape the opinions of voters. And that is exactly what they have done. Most people on this board have no idea how much health care premiums have risen because of Lobbying; nor do they know that the health care industry is no longer a competitive market. Nor do they know that the USA leads the world in profits by a staggering margin, but is not even in the top twenty when it comes to outcomes. Meaning: we pay top dollar for an increasingly bad product because corporations cut politicians huge checks.
This is where I agree with Republicans. By making Washington so powerful, we have given corporations something to capture. They now devote more money to lobbying than R&D. Their goal is to capture regulatory agencies and politicians for the purpose of using Washington's centralized power to rig markets and fleece the consumer. They don't have to bear the risk and debt associated with innovation if they have a monopoly; meaning: their money is better spent buying politicians.
This is why Libertarians don't like centralized power. Because the very existence of centralized economic levers leads to abuse. The story of post-Reagan capitalism is the story of how corporations - through lobbying pressure and election funding - captured government and set-up monopolies over health care and energy. The result is that we are being slowly bankrupted as a small cadre of people realize dynastic wealth.
We have to make these bastards compete.
What Talk-Radio-Republicans have never understood - because most have not had much advanced education in economics - is that corporate lobbying distorts market outcomes just as much as a bureaucrat who imposes price controls.
(God help us. . . these people vote)
(FYI: This was the biggest fear when Reagan advocated for giving corporations more access to Washington. People said that eventually corporations would use their tremendous financial leverage to staff government. We now have a system where politicians are paid handsomely by corporations to uphold special interests. Corporations and the State have merged to create the most centralized power ever imagined.)
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They aren't that smart there but smart enough not to allow the Progressives we have in. They really don't want them.
And those idiots still don't realize the gov't still hasn't read it all the way through yet. They still don't know everything thats in it yet. Guess we have to think like Pelosi and keep our hopes up.
