Don't Break What's Working in Health Care: Economist Glen Whitman on Medical Innovation

[felpaluche]

I have high hopes for medical care in the future to be much more better than today.

[dolphinsattack]

I trust the free markets more than govt, Obama bombs Libya, uses Predator Drones at free will, I trust my insurance company more than Liberals who are not educated in the medical field. Liberals politicize healthcare when in fact Healthcare is a medical financial element and shouldn't be a political element pushed by Socialists who have a Hollywood Bill Maher Michael Moore fantasy of Paris France.

[beancube2010]

If the innovation fields work only in North America then we have a big management problem about resource development that technology is not distributed for business controls instead of distributed them more freely for health purposes for the world population. There are some old mindset caused this that people must pay more attention studying about.

He looks more like an industrial $ale$man that Sold toxic nuclear waste for weapons and money is everything that kind of economists. Very evil!

[meeples]

Haha, I went and looked at the paper and found the list of the 30 greatest innovations. One of them was Viagra, which doctors rated 28/30 over 29 which was Non-sedating Antihistamines and 30 which was Bone Marrow Transplant.

Boners are more important than those? Really? The way this study chose the 30 greatest innovations was retarded.

[MakersMark34]

@killerbandit,

You miss umrmecheman's point. Deregulation works in every market. The free people fight for what they want by buying only the highest quality goods and services per dollar of their income. The firms fight for what they want through free, fair, and unhindered competition: Whoever most pleases the customer the customer achieves the greatest market share.

All commodities start as luxuries, starting with bread and water, recently, computers, now healthcare.

BeConstitutionalPeople

[soleilangela]

are there parts that are actually working?

[Tedtally]

I'm all for medical innovation, but if tens of millions of people don't have access to that innovation, what use is it?

[nliu1986]

This interview was immensely underwhelming. It seemed like nothing more than a sycophantic brag-fest of how the US healthcare system isn't so bad. Yes, Mr Whitman initally says that the US system is not so desirable, but I didn't notice any substantive specifics on how we can make it better. A visit to the hospital should not cost as much as a new car.

[umrmecheman]

thank goodness someone finally speaks up that us paying higher cost for new tech and drugs is what allows drug companies to comply with reduced price laws in other countries

[killerbandit]

hahahaha.

[umrmecheman]

if we deregulated insurance and health care and there was competition then we would see prices go down like LCD tv prices have plummeted

[killerbandit]

Despite what you think, TV companies are highly regulated. It is why you can leave your house with the TV on and it doesn't burn your house down.

[OxbowisaMstie]

@umrmecheman

horseshit.

what is the primary concern of any company/corporation?

profits.

what? you thought it was concern for their employees or consumers? Or in the case of insurance companies the patients requiring medical treatment to survive and live?

Nah fuck that, making money is what they do and as much as possible consequences be damned.

So how do you make a soulless corporation /company stop and notice who they are pissing on?

Government regulation, the stronger the better.

[umrmecheman]

corporations are soulless. a corporation is just a structure that allows a person or group of people to form a group for business purposes. but those corps are made up of people. i have 2 uncles and an aunt who have formed a company called home warranty inc. they did this because it is an area they have expertise in an making profits will allow them to do things like pay for a house, send kids to school, oh the horrors of their greed.

and you want to know a fun byproduct of all this. they've

[umrmecheman]

hired 17 employees as their company grew. he didn't start this business to screw people out of their money and just get rich. they pride themselves on delivering excellent service for a good price.

you need to rethink your baseline assumptions.

[Tzimnewman3]

EU plus Switzarland???

Switzarland is an EU member state like any other EU member state so they are not seperate but the same.

Like saying the US plus Florida.

[slmnjwarner]

@Tzimnewman3

Switzerland is a member of the European Free Trade Association (EFTA). It took part in negotiating the European Economic Area agreement with the European Union. It signed the agreement on 2 May 1992, and submitted an application for accession to the EU on 20 May 1992. However, a Swiss referendum held on 6 December 1992 rejected EEA membership. As a consequence, the Swiss government decided to suspend negotiations for EU accession until further notice. Its application remains open.

[hsfbunny]

Humor is intelligent and eloquent.

Using humor to point out the obvious contradictions in single payer is a deserving critique.

History is crystal clear. State controlled economies always fail. State managed industries always fail.

It amazes me that people living a free-market economy, with the best standard of living... can point to the outright disaster of communist philosophy and say "Hey, lets do that too!"

[OxbowisaMstie]

@hsfbunny

yeah, why would we want such an untested and ill-conceived...oh wait that's right...we are the only 1st world nation in this world that doesn't use a single payer system of some kind.

the only thing you said that i agree with is

free-market=disaster

(if i got that wrong and you didn't say that, well don't tell me while you still have a shred a decency left in my mind).

[megarational]

One of the most wasteful characteristics of the present system is the enormous administrative & bureaucratic waste in a system with such a hodge podge of players. Another is the tremendous insurance co. diversions of h.c. $ to profit, advertising departments, mega CEO wages, corporate jets, & millions of $ per day for propaganda media blitzes, campaign contributions & lobbying.

[megarational]

This video makes two points:

1) the U;S. system is far from ideal, and extremely expensive.

2) the U.S. system has a good record of innovations (even if at high cost)

So what would be ideal:

Streamline and make changes to

reduce costs but figure out how to do it in a way that preserves the pace of technological advances.

(And do something about the millions of uninsured & under insured & the growing number of people falling into those categories).

[megarational]

A single payer system has huge cost savings. But how would you maintain the pace of technological advances? Why couldn't research be carried on by more funding for private profit-driven research co.'s? The inventors & developers would still become rich. The only thing missing would be the insur. co. profits & lobbying etc. Though nothing stopping insur. co.s from offering supplementary insur. Solutions please, not platitudes.

[CosmosPrivateer]

So you work for paper that provides you with valuable objects. The paper is fake and is created by banks in order to control your life.

So what value do these objects have?

In my world the mind has the most value and the more powerful it is the more value you have. Objects only provide temporary value and fades very fast.

It also appears in your system of reward if someone creates something that works well and cost nothing to operate it would be suppressed from the people.

[Christoppher1994]

Money is now embedded into human nature, to change that you would have to change human nature. Also: Do you have money? How do you survive without money? How would we even have the ability to communicate right now without capitalism? (look up how the internet came into public use)

[megarational]

So save money & provide universal access with a single payer system, & focus the money saved into more research, rewarding the inventors & discovering scientists with wealth but not the whole bloated private health care & big pharma corporations.

[hsfbunny]

Three easy Steps for health care improvement.

1.Destroy the free market system for health-care with single payer.

2. Recreate free market with "rewards".

3. "Rewards" issued by honest and noble government employees.

Wow, what a clever plan. We must tell the world of this genius we have discovered!

Oh I get it!

Got a problem? Throw some government at it.

Got a problem that already has tons of government on it? Throw even more government on it.

[megarational]

Every other advanced nation has already discovered it.

It's why they all cover all their citizens with h.c. at a cost about half that of the U.S.

And your plank?

Oh yes, do noting, keep the system where about 1/3 of h.c. $ are wasted on the unnecessary admin cost associated with a hodge podge of players; allow the insurance co.s to continue to divert your premiums to mega-million $ CEO salaries, corp. jets, advertising dept.s, political campaign contributions & lobbying. & forget the uninsured.

[hsfbunny]

The government can provide a 50% cost savings?

Amazing!

Governemnt should take over Apple Computer this instant!

I can't wait for my $95 IPhone!

I can't wait for my $15 IPod!

Why stop at Apple, how about the whole compute industry! Good Lord, this discovery is unbelievable. We should give government the whole economy.

You Sir, are a genius!

Destroy the individual profit motive, and magic will occur. Unlimited new inventions, lower costs, everyone gets treatment.

Hazza!!!!

[hsfbunny]

The government has so much incentive to make things cheaper.

The government is creative too.

I see this every time I go to the motor vehicle office to register my car.

I want to grab Shanquia by the scruff of the collar and bring her to Steven Jobs, and declare.

"Steven, this fine government employee will create your next wonder product that will transform how we all communicate and live. In fact, her whole organization will grant blessings to your backwards private enterprise!"

[hsfbunny]

State run industry always works wonders for the people! More state, the better!

It worked great in the Soviet Union, Cuba and North Korea.. uh, never mind.

I mean it works great when the State runs only part of the economey.. ya that's it!

The state managed part is a crowning success! Get some state health care and *poof*, see it worked.

The remaining free market is, you know irrelevant. Got to keep some free market you know just to be polite.. eventually we can do away with it.

[megarational]

Still wasting utube space hsfbunny?

Still the same boring "trick" of stating some mythical extremes, then showing your "wit" ridiculing those simplistic extremes not one but you ever described.

Got any other "tricks".

That one is already boring.

[megarational]

Maybe if you weren't trying so hard to be sarcastic you would stop to look at the facts. US - 16% of GDP on h.c. Canada 10% of GDP. Diff. of 6% divided by the 10% we pay = more than 50%.

(OK, if you use the 6% over the higher 16% you don't get 50%, but that doesn't change the huge diff, in cost)

As for the profit motive, doctors in Canada are still private. Innovations still reward the inventors though the patent laws.

So your sarcasms aren't based on reality.

[hsfbunny]

*Hey look at me! I drown you with statistics while ignoring the premise.*

I don't need statistics. I have self evident unintended consequences.

Canadian doctor wages = price controlled by government.

Canadian doctor wages = less than American doctors.

Canadian doctors = immigrating to united states, where they get paid what they are worth.

Canadian health care is so cheap, you ran the doctors out of the country. Next on the list, close the Canadian border to save health care!

Amazing!

[hsfbunny]

Opinion polls tell everything! African bushmen like their health care too.

Health care fore everyone = win! No matter the quality. Pass law, order everyone to buy health care. *Ta-da* Genius!!

Free to work! Free to pay massive taxes! Free food! Free to do nothing!

Nothing sounds great to me, I'll take that option Sir!

Want to by some milk or shoes with your money? No Sir, you need to buy health care.. its the law!

Bada-bing! Pass a law, problem solved!

[hsfbunny]

Find yourself alone, stranded on a tropical island?

Hungary? Pass a law.

Food will fall into your mouth!

Sick? Pass a law!

You will become healed!

Stupid? Pass a law.

You will become an inventor of the ages!

No effort needed! Just pass a law.

[hsfbunny]

Need production? Command it!

Need wealth? Order it!

Smart people work in government, and command how the producers shall live.

Get to work robots, so I may eat.

[megarational]

Quit wasting utube space. Maybe you are impressed with what you seem to think is your "wit".

Frankly, it seems just childish.

You technique is also becoming boring.

First you state a lot of hyperbolic extremes that no one is advocating. Then you show your "intelligence" by ridiculing those hyperbolic extremes that no one advocated in the first place.

Got any other technique?

Or are you just a "one-trick-pony"?

[megarational]

As to the U.S. h.c. bills it's largely irrelevant. Contrary to GOP propaganda nothing in the h.c. bills would make the U.S. system like that of Canada's.

[megarational]

This video started early on with "the U.S. h.c. system is far from ideal.

As people scan the tremendous amount of space you have wasted on this thread one thing should be obvious. Not one solution offered.

The other noticeable thing: All your "comments" start sounding the same. Like any 2 Brittany Spears songs.

[hsfbunny]

Who needs innovation! What a useless idea!

You are a genius my friend!

If only we had your wisdom a few thousand years ago! What waste and effort cound have been avoided! Just think...

Who needs the plow, when we can forage for food!

Who needs fire, when we have a cave for warmth.

Lord, why did you deny this intellect upon us until now!

I was going to invent unlimited energy, but now I will got to sleep instead, all guided by your golden philosophy!

Thank you Sir!

[megarational]

How old are you?

[megarational]

Are you on drugs?

[hsfbunny]

You use the word "innovation".

So we should use force to limit unnecessary innovations, so resources can be better applied elsewhere?

How?

Create a government agency to decide what innovations are approved for capital investment?!

Ya, that will work great!

You want our greatest minds, the very individuals that have enabled all human achievement.. to be micro managed by government incompetence?!

You want a bureaucracy, to tell Einstein what to think about?

[hsfbunny]

If people do not want an "innovation", there is a little market force to limit capital investment and redirect resources....

its called "people won't buy it."

Your solution? Create an agency to do a 3 year study on the approval of a new scented toilet paper. Only to determine statically the "innovation" does not lead to better health outcomes.

If people were free to choose, smart folks like you might fall over dead from anxiety.

[hsfbunny]

There is nothing intrinsically different between a skin cancer treatment, and a Big Mac.

History is crystal clear.

Nothing provides better service, availability, quality, at the lowest cost, than the free-market.

Fast food, cell phones, computers.. in all areas of a free-market we see direct evidence that this is a superior system.

25 years ago, a cell phone the size of a brick = $3,000.

Today, a cell phone is a powerful micro computer that fits in your hand = $200

You're the joke.

[megarational]

No difference between skin cancer & a big mac? One difference is that you don't die from a big mac. (At least not from just one.)

So you solution to lack of access & unsustainable cost increases in the U.S. h.c syst. was what again?

You used up so much space yet somehow seem to have forgotten to mention it.

Is it "just let the free market solve everything? (Careful, you'll give Ron Paul an orgasm.)

[hsfbunny]

A Big Mac is food. You need food in order to live.

Don't eat, you die.

Don't get a skin cancer treatment, you die.

The market responds to both products exactly the same. They are intrinsically identical.

The free market, and technology has made food incredibly affordable

540 calories for $1 dollar!

Ask a starving African what is more important: a Bic Mac, or a skin cancer treatment.

A starving man will pounce on a Big Mac like it was delivered by God himself!

[megarational]

still haven't heard your solution.

By the way, Big Mac's have gotten more expensive as they continued to shrink in size. Irrelevant I know, but irrelevant and simplistic seems to be what you are all about.

[megarational]

And as to a Big Mac, or any other MacDonald burger, being food there is some debate on that.

[megarational]

By the way FYI someone who doesn't think we can rely on the free market to solve everything is not the same as someone who thinks gov't can solve everything - a distinction that seems to have escaped you.

[hsfbunny]

To quote you "save money & provide universal access with a single payer system".

Single payer totally destroys the free market.

So which is it genius?

Single payer, government monopoly?

Highly regulated, what we have today?

Free market, dead seance 1930?

[megarational]

I notice that you yet again failed to offer your solution to rising h.c. costs & increasing no. of uninsured, & the resulting unsustainable effects on the fed. budget.

Is juvenile sarcasm the limit of your imagination & intellectual ability?

Also, if single payer destroys the free market, why does Canada, with u.h.c. financing, still have a healthy private insurance industry?

[hsfbunny]

The solution? You want to see medical care get cheap? Just like a Big Mac? Here you go.

1. End all government mandates for emergency rooms to provide care.

2. Make all medical insurance illegal. Except for standard high deductible "catastrophic" medical insurance. (Minimum out of pocked deductible $2,500. Wellness checkups free.)

[hsfbunny]

3. Deregulate the insurance industry so insurance companies can operate nation wide (example: due to gov regulation, Alabama has one insurer for the whole state creating a high cost monopoly).

4. End tax breaks for employers to provide medical insurance to employees.

5. End all government paid medical programs.

Watch and see medical costs drop by 60% in the first 10 years, and continue to drop going forward.

[hsfbunny]

Watch and see medical costs drop by 60% in the first 10 years, and continue to drop going forward.

Watch as doctors open clinics in shopping malls, advertise affordable quality care, send you mail inviting you to their new office for a free checkup..

[hsfbunny]

Nurse practitioners setting up in Walmart: $15 flue shots, exam and drug prescription for $40.

This would create a free market. Only number 2 has a control on insurance regulation.

If you can figure out how all those points work, then you deserve an honorary degree in economics.

This would solve our problem.

For the next 100 years, anyone supporting socialized health care would be considered a fool.. That is, until people forget what they have.

Good luck.

[megarational]

Your solution, as you know, results in basic health care only for those that can afford it.

I think that speaks for itself.

[hsfbunny]

This would slash costs, and make affordable coverage for 98% of the population.

Health care would be high quality and low cost, like every other free market.

You could buy coverage for less than the cost of an average cell phone plan.

Can't afford it? What is affordable to you?

Zero?!

If it is "zero", then good luck reaching it.

If YOU want to pay for someone's health care, then YOU pay for it.

No matter how you twist it, your plan involves sticking a gun in my back and taking it.

[sleedolfine15]

I've had this arguement with megarational before--repeatedly. He sees no way for society to progress unless it is ordered to do so. He lacks the imagination to see that most of what works in our society--in all societies, is the child of freedom.

[megarational]

My opinion is that a sol'n holding most most promise is (a) single payer for massive cost savings & universal access to good basic h.c. ( b) leave private insur. Cos free to offer supp. insur. & Cadillac plans for those that can afford them: ( c) maintain the U.S. pace of technological development by methods such as but not limited to increased funding for research, including private research co.s who would still be profit driven from the patent laws pertaining to new discoveries;

[megarational]

d) proceed with some of the other cost saving measures in the h.c. bills, such as increased focus on preventative care & supplier reimbursements models based on successful treatment of a condition as opposed to the number of tests & procedures done, & (e) continue to study other systems for any aspects that are effective.

[megarational]

And your preferred solution was what?

[megarational]

By the way, you quoted some "changes" that have occurred over the last 25 years. Why didn't you mention changes like h.c. insurance premiums continuing to increase faster than wages, or the increases in the number of Americans w/o h.c. insur. , or the change that continues with another 14,000 Americans losing h.c. insurance every day?

[hsfbunny]

Over the past 50 years the government has increasingly regulated, paid for, or incentivized health care.

The correlation is this: government interferes in health care... prices go up.

Prices went up, so government interferes some more.. prices go up again... and on, and on..

This has continued to where we are today.

Smart enough to plan your health care utopia, but too stupid to figure this out?

How about this? Leave me the hell alone.

Oh but you cant, you needed me to pay for it.

[hsfbunny]

Five steps to becoming a champion for the common man!

1. Give people "free" stuff.

2. Take away people's freedom, because those same people take too much "free" stuff, or use the "free" stuff the wrong way.

3. Take away freedoms not directly connected to the "free" stuff so people do not get too mad, like increased taxes, fees, rationing, etc.

4. Claim a moral victory for the common man!

5. Never claim to be a Socialist.

6. Find a new program, and repeat.

[megarational]

Your over-the-top rantings would be right at home in a tea-bagger rally.

[KladionicaCity]

Still failed to explain how this ˝˝innovations˝ could be made more affordable to the avg. citizens.

[Chase69Chase]

The products of innovation become affordable with adoption/use, similarly to how the iPhone went from a luxury item to a more-affordable daily asset.

Innovation itself is never cheap. Doing something new goes against the cost-proven status quo. A beneficial innovation produces enough benefit to offset the cost.

The greatest cost in innovation is in "failures" along the way to successes. Without the failures there can be no change, so the cost of trying must cover the periods between successes.

[rickinchvilleva]

Back in 1992, Glen Whitman was my intern/research assistant at the International Freedom Foundation. How far he has come! Great interview, too.

[HiFiSmith]

Nice summary of Bastiat's "Things unseen" principles applied to healthcare. Good job Reason.

[fcabido]

if america the innovation capital is socialized than cancer will never be cured

[CosmosPrivateer]

@SonnyTheWhiteDwarf

That's the program you're running not the one I installed.

I have run that program before but in the end I deleted it and installed the Neo-Human program.

Maybe time to reformat and upload a new program.

[imsocuteable]

this guy cracks me up.

I mean, it's not like the US government can't fund anything innovative.... and nobody has ever made money off of things that were discovered with US government funded research...

If only we could be more like Somolia. They have no government intervention. Survival of the fittest. No rules. No regulations.

[FlailingJunk]

@imsocuteable

v=qtGkTRnocZI

[RadioFreeWisconsin]

Somalia huh? What a strawman! Libertarians still people in a government to protect people from being murdered.

[FlailingJunk]

@RadioFreeWisconsin

A government with enough power to support police and a military will not be able to gain more power for itself?

[RadioFreeWisconsin]

Not necessarily, what are you, an Anarchist? If the police and military isn't there, then gangsters and warlords takeover. There's a huge difference between a small government, and no government.

[FlailingJunk]

I do not prefer the term anarchist because people imagine post apocalyptic dystopias when they hear the word. I advocate a stateless society.

Are you aware of a government in the history of the world that, besides temporary post war declines, did not consistently grow in power?

Why do you believe that "gangsters and warlords" would take over in the absence of a violent monopoly on protection and social services?

[RadioFreeWisconsin]

Yes, governments can abuse their power, but so can the guy next door who might want to take your lawnmower. So, while keeping a vigalant eye on the State, we must also recognize what would occur without it. Everytime a State has collapsed (in history) it has not gone well. The one exception people bring up is Spain, but I disagree with them. I wrote a blog this, click on my channel page, click on the Website, and you'll find it under Social Criticism. It's called, Anarcho-Syndicalism Critique

[FlailingJunk]

Anarcho-Syndicalism certainly has internal inconsistencies. Have you looked at anarcho-capitalism or voluntaryism?

The problem I have with minarchy is that the minimum state is still two powerful. I cant see how it would be possible to give politicians a monopoly on certain services, such as protection, and the ability to fund those services by force while still being able to restrain those politicians from increasing their power.

[Christoppher1994]

you sound like 'Dennis' from the holy grail except you want the opposite.

[FlailingJunk]

Help, help i'm being repressed!

[FlailingJunk]

It is true that the collapse of a state is never a positive event. However the intentional replacement of the state with a free market in the services the state previously imposed, while unprecedented, I believe there is a good case that not only can it be done but that It will be a great improvement.

May I recommend: watch?v=Xn1k16Gws9E

[RadioFreeWisconsin]

it's nice to dream, ain't it!

[FlailingJunk]

Are you referring to anarchy or restraining government?

[FlailingJunk]

I am interested in how a minarchy could be restrained as such. If you have thoughts on this point.

[RadioFreeWisconsin]

This may sound naive: vote Libertarian.

[hsfbunny]

Primitive man was enslaved to his ignorance, until he invented government.

First came government, then came fire!

First came government, then came the wheel!

First came government, then came agriculture!

First came government, then came the plow!

Government invented the airplane, electric light, the generator... government is like a mystical god like creator of all things!

The individual inventor is a idiot, a robot to be commanded.

The government administrator... is like a god.

[megarational]

Quit wasting utube space.

[Wormtail81]

I think we should emphasize that the rest of the world could contribute a lot more to innovation if their systems were more like our own.

[Orchard6773]

I'm now completely convinced that if you some time checking into what this healthcare bill is about and come out still thinking it's a good idea then you truly are a socialist (or simply an idiot).

[averagejoe040]

The idiots pushing this Health Care reform are of two kinds.

One kind believes that socialism is just the greatest system for making everything wonderful.

They truly have no deeper thought than that.

They bought the whole bill of goods.

The other kind is more cynical. They see Health Care reform as a benefit to advance their career, to win some votes to make history.

They both forget that history is often very bad news and socialism has led to poverty and enslavement throughout history.

[CosmosPrivateer]

You see that we look at value as profit. Now I can pay my student loan, my debt to the man.

But in order to extend that stream of value I must extend profit. In order to extend profit I must cut value in order to make my services profitable.

We put profit always ahead of value and why do we do that?

Only to pay the debt we owe the man.

No matter how well we are taken care of were still sick minded.

[goten1201]

For the misinformed whining about video quality, when a video is uploaded on youtube, it has to process. In the first few minutes or more, the video quality will be horrible until that processing has finished.

[furyofbongos]

Government does everything at the point of a gun (taxation is coerced).

Coercion is violence.

Violence cannot be used to create virtue.

Therefore, government cannot do anything virtuous.

Only chaos and destruction can come from violence.

Therefore, only chaos and destruction can come from government.

[caltrop69]

@furyofbongos

While I agree with your sentiment...Your reasoning is a bit flawed.

"Only chaos and destruction can come from violence."

I'm not sure I'd apply that universally.

[furyofbongos]

@caltrop - Not trying to be a wise apple, I'm truly open to a good answer and learning something...

Can you give me an example of an initiation of the use of force resulting in virtue?

Let me lay some ground rules if I may.

1) Self defense does not count as that is a response to an initiation of the use of force.

2) Giving to the poor is virtuous, but doing that by applying violence against another (taxation) is the opposite. So that kind of example also does not count.

Thanks!

[caltrop69]

Your ground rule number one was my very point. Violence can PREVENT chaos and destruction, when used in self defense.

"Initiation of force" is much more specific than "violence." Initiating force is immoral.

I don't think you even needed to list the second one. Taxes are theft. Plain and simple. No one spends someone else's money as well as they spend their own, and thus, taxes destroy wealth.

[hsfbunny]

Wrong.

You right to self defense is always virtuous, even when delegated to someone else.

An individual can delegate to government their right to self defense as a third party, to act on their behalf.

Just as small woman would be physically unable to defend herself from a large thug.

She can hire an armed security guard to protect her life/property.

A police officer (gov agent) finds a woman being raped, and kills (delegated gov use of violence) the the attacker is acting virtuously.

[hsfbunny]

Oops.. to be more clear on the last line..

A police officer (gov agent) finds a woman being raped, and kills (delegated gov use of violence) the attacker, the officer has acted virtuously.

[Chase69Chase]

Was this shot on someone's iPhone?

[Surhotchaperchlorome]

Why do you ask that?

[Chase69Chase]

Worst quality vid I've ever seen from Reason. *shrugs*

I suspect that Reason survives with help from interns who are still learning. Feedback helps Reason (and the interns) get better at what they usually do quite well.

If you don't get negative response when you miss the mark, you can't learn to hit the mark more consistently. Critique is vital to excellence. (Popular media paints criticism as negative. Mediocrity ensues.)

[HymerSchmidt]

When you watch a video within a few hours of its upload, YouTube has not fully processed it. First, a low quality version is available, then the better version is available like it is now.

[Moragauth]

Yummy interviewer.

[CosmosPrivateer]

If you actually fix whats broken it can no longer be profitable.

The goal is to prolong the problem in order to bleed it dry of value.

If you consider value profits.

[Mastikator]

Anything that is going to be sustainable has to be profitable, or at least the net revenue vs expenditure needs to be greater or equal to zero.

That's the insurance part. A decentralized asynchronous communitarian effort would be profitable to all those who are insured, but no single person would be in charge of everyone's insurance.

The medical technology is developing just at above total stagnation, slightly higher than the rest of the world. It needs not more regulation, but less.

[RogerOnTheRight]

@CosmosPrivateer Profitability does not depend on something being broken.

In fact, fixing what could reasonably be described as "broken" may well lead to greater profitability for all market participants.

Economics, as is the case with business, is not a zero-sum game.

[CosmosPrivateer]

@RogerOnTheRight

Our economics has no value unless profit has value.

Value is determined by the people that gain on either side. If value determines the progress of our existence then that is good. If our value determines your value of life were fucked.

In other words were fucked any way YOU look at it.

[RogerOnTheRight]

"If our value determines your value of life were fucked."

What in the world do you mean? This is as clear as mud.

[CosmosPrivateer]

@RogerOnTheRight

We are fucked.

Our minds are the problem, the way we think. Profit and greed will always have more value then actually doing anything for the good of mankind.

If it's not profitable it will not happen. If it's profitable it will not change.

It's just the way it is.

[Christoppher1994]

"profit and greed will always have more value then actually doing anything the good of mankind"

Really?? Than how can you explain all of the medical advancements we have created? How about in communication? Has that not benefited mankind? Right now, the engine you are using to communicate with me was originally created for colleges to use and no one else. However, someone thought "hey, I could make a profit off of this" And the internet was born. Without "greed", we wouldn't have the tech now

[CosmosPrivateer]

@Christoppher1994

Quote

Without "greed", we wouldn't have the tech now.

You must be kidding, you have warp mind.

[Christoppher1994]

let me explain: It is not "greed" per say, however it is a desire for valuable objects, currency in our society. In our society, to earn money, you must work and depending on your desire for money, you work more or less harder, faster, and efficiently. the average entrepreneur doesn't like to do that, so instead of taking an average job, he invents. The reason we have chemotherapy, MRI's, or the internet is not because someone wanted to help society, but because he thought he could earn money!

[Christoppher1994]

i just about died of laughter after i read that!

[CosmosPrivateer]

When youre through laughing can you tell me what value these objects you speak of really have?

Quote from megarational's .

We pay 1/3 of our health care costs to companies that offer nothing towards health care.

Many people on this planet will believe about anything. They believe the free market actually benefits them. In reality it only benefits the people at the very top.

I believe in capitalism but I dont believe in paying some fat rat for doing nothing.

[Christoppher1994]

I want you to do something, i want you to compare medical advancements from the U.S. with any other country on the planet. That will show you what capitalism has created

[Moragauth]

No, it's to address unattended to demand and sustain provision for already attended to demand. If you consider value profits, anyway... which anyone with a brain does.

[underbird]

Unfortunately the Detroitification of the healthcare system is coming.

[XCritonX]

Innovation costs the US with higher health care payments. In the end the US sells the technology to other countries and in the end recovers lots of that money. This means that health care ends up earning money that boosts the economy, creates high paying tech jobs and profitable exports.

[Surhotchaperchlorome]

If it was true that a monopoly with higher prices produced more innovation, then patents would work better.

You might want to check out a video called, "The Myth of Science as a Public Good".

It provides a study and analysis showing what I mean.

[Surhotchaperchlorome]

Um...we also stiffle innovation.

You might want to read "Healing Our World" by Mary J. Ruwart. Or "Why Government Doesn't Work" by Harry Browne to see how the State hurts our medical system.

Heck you realize that (from Ruwart) that the FDA's mandatory efficacy testing accounts for about 80% of the costs of new drugs, and 12 of the 15 years it takes to get them on the market?

Or that the high costs are because of restricted supply (the AMA and FDA have cartels)?

[nick10463]

here here.

[Surhotchaperchlorome]

To the people saying that it was our Government funding, they need to look up "Crowding Out".

[Mastikator]

So the whole world is depending on the US to keep a relatively free market on healthcare.

But if the whole world went freemarket-ish on healthcare, wouldn't that mean the healthcare industry would innovate and improve 3-4 times faster, if not more?

What kind of diseases would have been cured by now if all of the world was free? How many people have died because of universal health care? Probably billions.

[kainniak1]

greater then all other countries combined i sense no bias here at all..... ROFLMAO how the fuck can anyone say or even measure that

[mrdowns]

well, I'd guess you'd just look at where medical innovations originated and tally them up. Doesn't seem that hard to me.

[DangerFamily]

yeah what he said