The curious task of economics is to demonstrate to men how little they really know about what they imagine they can design. – F.A. Hayek
Posted in Health Care, Politics on Feb 7th, 2012
When I was a kid I vaguely remember hearing Republican support for a “starve the beast” strategy to shrink government so much that it can be drowned in a bathtub. Someone forgot to tell the Republicans that monsters lurked in the drain. Think about Medicare. Its costs were growing faster, much faster, than projected until [...]
Posted in Education, Health Care on Jan 30th, 2012
John Goodman, summarizing the failure of the Medicare pilot programs to produce cost reductions, asks rhetorically: Can you think of any other market where the buyers of a product are trying to tell the sellers how to efficiently produce it? Great quote. I’d say that higher education gets close particularly if we take a generous [...]
Posted in Government Gone Wild, Health Care on Jan 13th, 2012
I went to the doctor for the first time in three years the other day. Unless I sustain a gun shot wound I do not plan on going again any time soon or they’ll have to commit me to the nuthouse. Why was I there? I threw out my back (what a wuss I am!) [...]
Posted in Economic Illiteracy, Health Care on Jan 5th, 2012
In one short post Bryan Caplan lays out in 5 minutes what usually takes me an hour to describe to people when they ask, “what do I need to know about the US Health Care system in order to be an informed critic?” It is his obliteration, rightly, of Jonathan Gruber’s missal on government health [...]
Posted in Economic Illiteracy, Fun Facts, Health Care on Dec 15th, 2011
In today’s news we learn that American doctors deliver a 24-week old baby that is the size of a soda can. Look up the data on what other countries do at this level. Second, once you adjust for the things that doctors have no control over (the risky behavior and accidents Americans endure), the US [...]
Posted in Education, Health Care, Socialism on Dec 14th, 2011
Michael Moore should be paid more and is exploited. I mean it. He has produced a number of misleadingly anti-capitalist documentaries that have become educational darlings. I cannot get my mind around that these are commonly used “educational” tools in high school much less college. But given that he is so popular and that so [...]
Posted in Health Care on Dec 13th, 2011
I thought one reason to be part of a union was so that you could bargain for more attractive wage and benefit packages than you might be able to on your own? And doesn’t research suggest that the union compensation premium is at least 15% over non-union workers when properly controlling for other factors? Then [...]
Posted in Health Care on Dec 12th, 2011
Click to enlarge. Source here.
Posted in Economic Illiteracy, Health Care, You Can't Have it Both Ways on Nov 29th, 2011
It’s been said many times but bears repeating. Expenditures are not costs. How often have you heard the claim, “health care costs in America are out of control?” I hear it a lot, and it is problematic for at least three reasons. Reason #1: What the heck is health care? The forgoing claim treats “health [...]
Posted in Health Care on Nov 27th, 2011
There’s long been a vigorous debate about whether the rise of suburbia has been a good thing on balance or not. I don’t have a particular horse in this race as I’ve lived in the country, suburbia and the city and have experienced the best and worst of each of them. This short piece on [...]
![[Most Recent Quotes from www.kitco.com]](http://www.kitconet.com/charts/metals/gold/t24_au_en_usoz_2.gif)
![[Most Recent Quotes from www.kitco.com]](http://www.kitconet.com/charts/metals/silver/t24_ag_en_usoz_2.gif)