Tuesday, April 22, 2003

trackback []

Janet Daly: Was left-wing politics anything more than a gloss for envious vengeance on the one hand, and—on the other—a sinister desire to control the lives of others? And, in the end, wasn’t it the achievements and the nobility of individuals, not collectives, that gave the human condition its point? The answers to those questions came to me in the darkness of that very cold British winter of 1979. Once heard, they could not be forgotten. 10:17:08 PM    comment []

trackback []

On Britain's Single-Payer Health Care System Yet some people advocate for bringing the glories of Britains NHS to the U.S. The present Labour government still mouths the received wisdom that it is wicked to pay privately for an operation (even though you continue to support the state system through your taxes), because doing so will be using some of the finite resources that might have gone to an NHS patient. The reason, of course, that the resources are quite as finite as they are is because the central government controls and rations the entire system. The number of medical-school places cannot expand according to need, as they would in a market system, but can only increase by government order—and economic stringency keeps them to the minimum thought necessary. Better for more patients to wait for surgery than for any of them to have an advantage over others. The logic is remorseless. What cannot be had by everyone (at the same time) should not be had by anyone. 10:13:59 PM    comment []