The answer to everything even remotely policy-related – is less government. Because the original sin of everything even remotely policy-related – is too much government. Want to solve our health care “crisis” – ??? Undo the original government sins.
After World War II – taxes were kept at during-WW II levels. So in an end run around this too much government – the private sector started offering employees untaxed “benefits”…including health insurance. Post-WW II set up a bizarre, antithetical-to-Reality system…where health insurance isn’t tied to the person – it’s tied to the person’s employer. Which is inherently very stupid.
Post-WW II set up a bizarre, antithetical-to-Reality system…where health insurance stopped being a catastrophic policy, and started paying for EVERY encounter with a health care provider. Car insurance pays when you wrap your car around a tree. Imagine how stupid and expensive it would be – if they were paying for everything up to and including oil changes and windshield wipers.
Post-WW II also set up a bizarre, antithetical-to-Reality third-party-payer system. The doctor and patient are in the room negotiating services and terms – the guy picking up the tab is not. Which guarantees skyrocketing prices and costs. Because human nature. A buyer wants to buy as much as he can.
A seller wants to sell as much as he can – for as much as he can. The check and balance upon these billions of daily commercial exchanges – is the buyer’s wallet.
The buyer wants to conserve his coin – so he perpetually looks for the best deals. The seller wants to sell – so he and the buyer negotiate mutually agreeable deals. If the guy picking up the tab isn’t involved in the process – price is no object. And things quickly get REALLY crazy.
Seven decades of third-party-payer health insurance later – things have become really, REALLY crazy.
You want more government further screwing up health care? There’s plenty, you know. Medicare, for instance. You know, the third-party-payer government health care plan for senior citizens. Medicare is currently at least $40 trillion short. Medicare doesn’t actually completely cover seniors – so the private sector has to backstop the government. Medigap, anyone?
And Medicare actually pays medical providers ridiculously low rates for medical goods and services. So since Medicare’s inception – medical providers have been price-shifting to the private sector. Charging the private sector much, MUCH more – to subsidize the government.
Steadfastly impervious to facts, Leftists everywhere want to murder private health insurance – and force feed us all into Medicare’s bankrupt, gaping maw. Medicare for All – is medical care for none.
The solution to this titanic government-caused mess – is less government. Not more – less. Allow people to purchase policies in any of the fifty states. Equalize the government’s treatment of individual-purchased and employer-provided insurance. And begin to roll back the government’s third-party-payer involvement in…everything.
Another area where government keeps rigidly insisting on inserting itself – is the Internet. The Internet is perhaps the most successful endeavor in human history. Nothing has grown bigger, better and faster. The federal government did in fact create the Internet. And for decades, it just sat there – inert…gathering dust. Until the 1990s. When the government privatized the Internet. At which point – KABOOM.
United States’ private Internet Service Providers (ISPs) spent the next quarter century investing $1+ trillion dollars building the networks. Taking us from 14k dial-up snail speeds – to multiple gigabyte hyper speeds.
Which paved the way for millions of other companies to invest trillions of additional dollars creating and developing…everything we know on the Web. And a whole lot of stuff we don’t. (It’s a BIG Internet.) Government controlling the Internet – kept it an unknown, unused bit of nothing. For decades. The private sector handling the Internet – created the free speech-free market Xanadu we all know and love today.
Steadfastly impervious to facts, Leftists everywhere want to roll back this titanic private sector success – and revert to a government-controlled Internet. They want to re-impose the very ridiculous Network Neutrality. Which an avowed Marxist describes thus:
“At the moment, the battle over network neutrality is not to completely eliminate the telephone and cable companies. We are not at that point yet. But the ultimate goal is to get rid of the media capitalists in the phone and cable companies and to divest them from control.”
How very Venezuela of them. To “get rid of the media capitalists in the phone and cable companies and to divest them from control” – you need government Internet as a replacement. Which Leftists have already long been funding. How’s that been going? Remarkably like government health care.
Broadband Boondoggles: A Map of Failed Taxpayer-Funded Networks:
“For decades, local governments have made promises of faster and cheaper broadband networks.
“Unfortunately, these municipal networks often don’t deliver or fail, leaving taxpayers to foot the bill.
“Explore the map to learn about the massive debt, waste and broken promises left behind by these failed government networks.”
One of the angles Leftists attempt to work in defense of their government Internet efforts – is the lack of Internet access in America’s rural areas. For those of you who are government school victims – the United States is a VERY large place. Reaching the US’s very many uber-rural areas with uber-fast Internet – ain’t easy. That being said, this alleged problem – is already exceedingly overblown:
“(T)he (Federal Communications Commission) FCC still bizarrely only counts a hardline (terrestrial fixed) Internet connection as a connection. Meaning buried cables criss-crossing America – all the way into your abode.
“But nearly everyone in America has a 4G (Fourth Generation) wireless smartphone. On which you can seamlessly stream High Definition (HD) video – the most bandwidth intensive thing currently to do on the Internet. (And we’re but a few years away from exponentially-faster-5G).
“And then there is Satellite Internet – for the remaining very few who are bereft of both wired and cellular wireless.
“And those…speeds that serve as the FCC minimum? They are WAY faster than 98+% of Americans currently need.
“The Truth About Faster Internet: It’s Not Worth It:
“‘Typical U.S. households don’t use most of their bandwidth while streaming and get marginal gains from upgrading speeds.’
“So even while streaming High Definition (HD) video – the most bandwidth intensive thing currently to do on the Internet – ‘typical U.S. households don’t use most of their bandwidth.’
“In other words – just about everyone in America has more-than-sufficient access to the Internet.”
As just mentioned, government has for decades been trying to replicate private ISPs. And as just mentioned – has been perpetually, miserably failing. And wait: Here come’s the private sector – yet again riding to the government’s rescue. And all the rest of us too. Via the aforementioned 5G wireless network:
“(T)he 5G wireless network – is going to blow the doors off of even the existing, massive private sector success.
“And thereby blow an even larger hole in the Left’s demands for government Internet.
“How 5G Will Solve Rural Broadband:
“‘Starting with advanced versions of 4G LTE and then continuing with 5G, wireless technologies will not only displace many wireline endpoints in dense population areas, but also in low population density areas, including rural areas….
“‘The cost advantage of wireless connections is overwhelming.
“‘A spokesperson for the Wireless ISP Association (WISPA) estimates that a wireless connection to a rural endpoint costs one-fifth to one-tenth of a wireline connection….
“Translation from Tech-to-English:
“The Left’s idea to get into the government into the broadband business – is currently very stupid and dishonest.
“Thanks to the private sector.
“And the Left’s idea to get the government into the broadband business – is about to get exponentially stupider and more dishonest.
“Thanks to the private sector.”
Because service to every single nook and cranny of the United States – is about to get massively faster wireless Internet service. Thanks to the private sector. Yet again saving us from government. And yet again saving government from itself.
[Originally Published at RedState]
Seton Motley is the president of Less Government, a DC-based non-profit organization dedicated to reducing the power of government and protecting the First Amendment from governmental assault.
