Richard Epstein: Breaking Down Healthcare Reform

Epstein is exactly right here. Obamacare is a sham. This was an excellent lecture.

Very enlightening lecture.

It's fairly obvious that the speaker puts bean counting ahead of compassion. Set aside what can and cannot be done within the constraints of finance and medical science, and it becomes obvious that unregulated Capitalism is when someone profits at another's expense without any regard for the predicament that the profiteering creates for people. In this regard Capitalism is the perfect cover for the brutish, the bullying, the fascist mentality, even if it has learned to smile and sound like it is making a plausible argument.

Quote: Originally Posted by khalsa Arrogant know-it-all. As opposed to your humble ignorance? Quote: Originally Posted by khalsa Repeat the mantra "Free market is the only way". Except at the end when he specifically said that it was not applicable vis-à-vis children, but your mantra of reducing his every argument to a supposed mantra rather then debate them is really all we can expect, can we? Quote: Originally Posted by khalsa Of course most of the people who follow this same mantra aren't willing to put a price on a life like this guy. Indeed, he makes the point that resources aren't unlimited and that the concept of opportunity-cost is such that a utilitarian-calculus of rationing must occur under the logic of single-payer. But remember that he isn't for single-payer. It's not that he is comfortable with putting a price on life, but that he is explaining that single payer requires putting a price on life. The moral question is really for you, since you appear to be for it - do you understand that this is a corollary of what you want, and are you comfortable with it? Quote: Originally Posted by khalsa He says the public option will kill all insurance. I agree, so what? He explains "so what" for the entirety of the lecture. Being humble, I suppose? Quote: Originally Posted by khalsa He argues that government run healthcare has it's place like schip, well if SCHIP is so great then why not have it for everybody? I.E. Single-payer. Again, he explains the difference towards the end. Quote: Originally Posted by khalsa Of course if you don't like universal healthcare there is another free market approach which he doesn't address. Get rid of the insurance companies and have patients directly paying doctors. Why not discuss this, it seems like the real free-market choice? How is taking an entire set of companies and "getting rid of them" (nice euphemism), and forcing people to deal with their doctor in a particular fashion by decree a "free-market choice"? You're obviously very confused. How very modest of you. I'll have to cut the next part up and deal with it in parts, because it's loaded to the hilt. Quote: Originally Posted by khalsa How can "consumers" (I prefer people) It is the people who consume. Runners are people who run. See how this works? Quote: Originally Posted by khalsa make good health decisions It's called the sanctity of contract. You can make good decisions because you know that your agreements are enforced by the law. Quote: Originally Posted by khalsa , when they know that their only option is to pay a for-profit company How do you make good hair-cut decisions when you know that your barber just wants to make profit? How do you make good eating decisions when you know that your grocer just wants to make profits? Quote: Originally Posted by khalsa who's only path to profit is by denying them care for their health? Does your barber's only path to profit consist of giving you a quick and bad hair-cut so he has more time for more customers? (woops, I mean people. Didn't mean to be insensitive or something). Does your grocer make more profits by selling your rotten fruit he got at a huge discount? Think about this. Quote: Originally Posted by khalsa This sounds like communism to me. Communism is a state of anarchy in which there are no property rights. Socialism is when the state runs and owns everything. Fascism or corporatism is when the state doesn't own everything de jure but effectively controls it de facto through laws and edicts. Here's the fun part: guess which category you fall into. And don't be humble about this - share it with us!

this man is a conservative nutjob, conservatives have no sense of logic or reason.

Arrogant know-it-all. Repeat the mantra "Free market is the only way". Of course most of the people who follow this same mantra aren't willing to put a price on a life like this guy. He says the public option will kill all insurance. I agree, so what? He argues that government run healthcare has it's place like schip, well if SCHIP is so great then why not have it for everybody? I.E. Single-payer. Of course if you don't like universal healthcare there is another free market approach which he doesn't address. Get rid of the insurance companies and have patients directly paying doctors. Why not discuss this, it seems like the real free-market choice? How can "consumers" (I prefer people) make good health decisions, when they know that their only option is to pay a for-profit company who's only path to profit is by denying them care for their health? This sounds like communism to me.