I pointed out that it was very expensive and that we really couldn’t afford a $500.00 Lego set. After a moment, their eyes lit up when they came to a solution: “We’ll ask Santa for it!”

I can forgive their childish naiveté. It was actually very cute.

But it is not cute when the same logic is used by grown adults. “We’ll ask government for it!” is not a solution.

From this, you’d think that everything we buy (except credit card services) comes from the states in which we live. On the contrary, most of what we buy, especially in the Internet age, moves in interstate commerce. Do we see the problem that Dennis K. warns of? If we prohibited cross-state sales in everything, we’d be far poorer than we are today. If fraud occurs, we are not powerless because the manufacturer is located in another state. We have recourse, and this provides an incentive for honest dealing. And if suing an out-of-state firm is difficult, that’s a flaw in the government’s inefficient legal system, not in interstate commerce.
The ultimate protection for consumers is competition, which is why we ought to be able to buy insurance policies offered in other states. One size won’t fit all; competition stimulates variety and individualized service. Dennis K. fears that all the insurance companies will locate in the one state where the laws are lenient.

That’s a very strange view of consumer activity. If that scenario were true—and if there were no legal barriers to competitive entry—wouldn’t honest companies make a bid for all those dissatisfied consumers? (Of course, consumers, not employers, should be buying their own insurance.) If protectionist laws are keeping this sort of competition from operating, then let’s repeal those laws. But deliberately shrinking markets to conform to 50 state boundaries is self-defeating. It’s responsible for much of what’s wrong today.

The credit card example is particularly off the mark. Even with our cartelized banking system, the Internet is brimming with information about which credit cards have the best terms and which banks have the best services, enabling consumers to shift from one to another whenever a better deal arises. Of course, the recent credit-card legislation will dry up a lot of that competition. By the way, while abuses undoubtedly occur, many practices called abuses are in fact not. For example, banks are accused to changing the interest rate on existing balances. But that’s not what happens. As Todd Zywicki points out in The Freeman (http://tinyurl.com/m3gxca), credit cards offer revolving credit, which means every month an unpaid balance represents a new loan. Revolving credit is an old practice, which consumers are responsible for understanding before they borrow someone else’s money. The Internet not only hosts a competitive market for credit cards; it also is a good source of consumer information.

Dennis K. labors under the misapprehension that the alternative to what the Democrats want is the status quo. Far from it. The Democrats would reinforce the status quo. (Republicans have contributed little to the debate.) Market advocates want to scrap the status quo so that economic freedom can deliver the goods and services we want.

The trouble with a government-run competitor is that it has unlimited funds. Do you think if it has trouble staying afloat that it will cut costs and work on becoming more efficient? The government will simply give it more money and raise taxes. A public option has little accountability because everyone pays for it via taxation, and you can’t exactly stop paying if you’re unsatisfied unless you want to spend time in jail.

I am 91 years old and I don’t know how many more years G-d has alotted me. But by 2015, if ths Universal Health Bill is approved, I will be laughing so hard in my grave that the casket lid will lift off. Public Insurance companies will cease to exist, since they cannot compete with Gov’t run insurane that pays for its costs by increasing taxes in order to cover the cost of health care!

When they walk away that puts those left in more of a state of overload. Those overloaded will then decide that they too…will walk away.

Then the situation gets uglier when the gunvernment demands and dictates that healthcare professionals remain on the job regardless of their own free will and voluntary action in the marketplace.

Think there won’t someday be a bounty on the heads of outlaw healthcare professionals working outside of the dictates of the regime?

Think again…hahaha.

Get your copy of Tom Baugh’s new book Starving The Monkeys before it is banned and Tom is whisked off to Gitmo or Syria!

Sincerely,
John and Dagny Galt
Atlas Shrugged, Owners Manual For The Universe!(tm)

http://www.starvingthemonkeys.com/

http://voluntaryist.com/fundamentals/introduction.php

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