Quantum Windbag
Gold Member
- May 9, 2010
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People keep calling me, and others like me, heartless because we don't want the government to step in and fix the problems in the health care market. The thing is, if they really cared about people, they would join me in arguing against the government because the government simply does not have the means to fix the problems.
The Humanitarian Shortcomings of the Affordable Care Act - Reason.com
This is one of those times you really should read the whole thing before you jump in and say something stupid.
Lets stipulate that most people who favor the ACA have honorable intentions: they want everyone, including people in ill health, to have access to good and affordable medical care. All decent people should want that. (How many favor it merely because it builds up government power and takes money from the well and well-heeled? I suspect its the same number as those who oppose it out of a dislike of the poor and ill. Of course politicians who favor the ACA undoubtedly find that it lines up nicely with their political interests.)
The problem is that in making government policy, unmovable obstacles often stand between motives and desired results. The laws of economics and politics thwart the best intentions. Sheer will is not enough to overcome these obstacles, because they are implicit in the logical structure of human action.
One cannot merely decree that there be good and affordable medical care for all. Setting up a byzantine bureaucracy wont do the trick either. Reality is simply not subject to the human will in that way. The maxim nature to be commanded must be obeyed applies here.
If politicians, bureaucrats, and pundits do not understand this, it indicates that they are stuck in an outmoded mindset. Before the 18th century, Ludwig von Mises wrote, the belief prevailed that in the field of human action no other criterion could be used than that of good and bad. If a policy did not attain its end, its failure was ascribed to the moral insufficiency of man or to the weakness of the government. With good men and strong governments everything was considered feasible. But, Mises continued,
The Humanitarian Shortcomings of the Affordable Care Act - Reason.com
This is one of those times you really should read the whole thing before you jump in and say something stupid.