By Milton Friedman, 2001. An excellent read. Here's an excerpt:
The ideal way to do that would be to reverse past actions: repeal the tax exemption of employer-provided medical care; terminate Medicare and Medicaid; deregulate most insurance; and restrict the role of the government, preferably state and local rather than federal, to financing care for the hard cases. However, the vested interests that have grown up around the existing system, and the tyranny of the status quo, clearly make that solution not feasible politically. Yet it is worth stating the ideal as a guide to judging whether proposed incremental changes are in the right direction.
My guess is we are heading in the wrong direction. I mean, we are already 99 trillion dollars in the hole. What's another 2 trillion dollars if you can buy off your constituents. Right?
via Cafe Hayek
1 Outbursts:
Happy,
Milton Friedman espoused a capitalist fantasy land where the idea of letting the strong survive was the esscence of what he promoted. His policies, which were taken to heart for several years by our goverment, certainly enriched our country, but economically bankrupted multiple coutries in South America and Africa. The only success story that can be claimed is in Chile, where our goverment assisted in ousting the legimately elected president and installing a dictator who brutally enforced the policies of the Chicago School of Economists by stripping the ecountry of subsidized health care and education and "disappearing" many of his political opponents. By the way, Chile now has a public health care system that covers 75% of the population according to WHO statistics, so they apparantly learned along the way that the economics that Milton Friedman espoused were not exactly very wise, and certainly not humanitarian. Either way, I don't think you would have enjoyed living in Chile during the time that Pinochet decided to follow Mr. Freidmans advice.
Not a very good choice to be quoting at this very difficult economic time for many people.
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