Posted by
Andrews on Sunday, October 11, 2009 2:08:32 PM
I made a point in my post "
Symmetry and Greed" that I would like to reexamine here.
In your everyday life, you generally negotiate for every dime you can get when bargaining for your salary. Whether you are a low paid wage slave or a highly paid independent contractor, you try to get every cent you can. And you accept that this is right, as no one else is going to look out for your interests, nor do they know your true worth, so you will be the best voice arguing for your own interests. So you try to get every dime you can, and are happiest when you are paid a wage which represents what you think you are worth.
Now, imagine that you are working at your job when you are told that your wages will be cut by 50%. And more than that, don't bother changing jobs, as the government has cut the wages of everyone in your profession 50% everywhere. Nor can you negotiate for better pay, as wages are set in stone, by force of law. And, that's not all. You now are answerable to the state for every decision you make, and will be called upon often to answer for your decisions. Oh, and a whole welter of new regulations were just dumped on you as well.
Do you think under such circumstances you would do a good job? Or even an adequate one? Or do you think you might just sit back and do the bare minimum? I know, if we answer honestly, very few of us would continue to do our best work under such conditions. And the few who might put in their best efforts are also probably those most likely to leave due to the crushing excessive regulations, leaving the disgruntled and the semi-competent time servers to fill the ranks.
So why do you want to put those who save lives in such a situation? Do you really want to depend on a disgruntled time server for critical medical care?
That is the most likely outcome of nationalized health care.
POSTSCRIPT
And please, no one tell me there is no talk of nationalization. In some foolishly candid moment a few years ago, many leading lights of the left admitted the "public option" was nothing but a backdoor to nationalization (or "single payer" as the euphemistically call it), so if the advocates admit it is just a trick to destroy private health care, how can you argue it isn't? Even our current system is so designed that it degrades care and increases costs, eventually leading to this pseudo-crisis which we face. There is no "public" option which does not eventually bankrupt us and lead to nationalization. The only choices are truly free care and intervention leading eventually to nationalization.