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2006-10-08 Britain

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Posted by lotp 2006-10-08 00:00|| || Front Page|| [3 views since 2007-05-07] Top

#1 Where's Lemming of the BDA when you need him? (g)

Posted by Ernest Brown">Ernest Brown 2006-10-08 00:09|| saturninretrograde.blogspot.com]">[saturninretrograde.blogspot.com] 2006-10-08 00:09|| Front Page Top

#2 In all seriousness, though, this just typifies what happens when government gets its insidious hooks into a good thing.

Posted by Ernest Brown">Ernest Brown 2006-10-08 00:10|| saturninretrograde.blogspot.com]">[saturninretrograde.blogspot.com] 2006-10-08 00:10|| Front Page Top

#3 "Patients have complained about dentists who treat only children on the NHS and force adults to pay, and the new contracts will deal with this."

Oh the horror. Having to pay for a service? Shocking!

Right. Because nobody should pay. And Candy Canes should grow on trees, and cute fluffy kittens should gently fall from the sky.

Nothing is free. Everything costs something to produce, and all you do when you offer it free to one person is put the cost onto somebody else. Obligation without compensation is servitude. This is true, no matter what the service or good might be.

There is no "right" to health care anymore than there is a right to food or clothing or bicyles or fishing tackle or landscaping or housecleaning. It's simply another thing that must be purchased as necessary. Trying to make cradle-to-grave government run - and financed - doctoring a government item has been an unmitigated disaster everywhere - even the workers' paradises in Scandinavia are starting to reprivatize parts of their "systems."

Like every other type of socialism, programs like this are great for a couple of generations but eventually go bankrupt - physically and/or morally - at some point.

Among all of the other reasons not to vote in the Dems is the fact that they would gleefully give us a system of health care not meaningfully different than the one in the article.

Dentures, anyone?

Posted by Clarong Shinelet4035 2006-10-08 06:56|| 2006-10-08 06:56|| Front Page Top

#4 This will lead to poor teefs in the British Isles.

Posted by Shipman 2006-10-08 08:47|| 2006-10-08 08:47|| Front Page Top

#5 There are dentists in Britain? How could you tell?

Posted by Raj 2006-10-08 09:09|| 2006-10-08 09:09|| Front Page Top

#6 I don't call the NHS free, I call it extortion funded.

Posted by Bright Pebbles in Blairistan 2006-10-08 10:36|| 2006-10-08 10:36|| Front Page Top

#7 a la the Big Book of British Smiles

Posted by Frank G">Frank G 2006-10-08 10:42|| 2006-10-08 10:42|| Front Page Top

#8 I can't see the situation with the NHS improving in the near future; the NHS is seen as something untouchable by all major parties (even the conservatives), meaning that the reforms needed won't take place.

This is very annoying, because recent opinion polls have shown that the population is generally willling to stop treating the NHS as some sacred cow, but the politicians are too frightened to do anything about it - none of them wants to be known as the guy who 'killed' the NHS (as though it were some ludicrous binary decision).

Huge strides could be made by simply allowing internal markets, but again the political will is not there to create a meaningful one (the conservatives were in the process of making one, labour came in and killed it off in one of their first decisions, and then found that they needed to recreate it). See the Adam Smith Institute's idea for more details.

The really annoying thing is that there's evidence of how a market could work extremely well on every high street ine the UK - opticians. When I was younger, you could always tell NHS spectacles - loads of jokes were made about them, but now it's exceedingly rare to see anyone wearing them, why? because you can go to SpecSavers, Vision Express, Boots, the Eye Clinic (and many more) and get the very best designer frames or invisible frames if you want, or maybe two-for-one deals is what you're after, varifocals, bifocals, all manner of contact lenses and several different forms of laser correction surgery are all available - and you can choose how much you want to pay, from hardly anything (reading glasses are available for less than a tenner) through to hundreds of pounds - your choice.

Why people can't see this going on and extrapolate it to the NHS is a constant mystery to me...

The market works, it's not perfect, but in virtually all areas it's more efficient and sensible to have a market. Check out this great article by Charlie Munger (the bit about 'Glock Air' should resonate with a lot of people on the 'burg!!), I've clipped the last bit - a quote by Ludwig von Mises;

"The market process is a daily repeated plebiscite, and it ejects inevitably from the ranks of profitable people those who do not employ their property according to the orders given by the public."

Posted by Tony (UK) 2006-10-08 10:46|| 2006-10-08 10:46|| Front Page Top

#9 #7 - bugger, I knew that was coming up, I just hoped to get my retaliation in first ;)

Posted by Tony (UK) 2006-10-08 10:47|| 2006-10-08 10:47|| Front Page Top

#10 Knew it, just wanted to see which a-hole posted it first, huh? LOL, Tony

Posted by Frank G">Frank G 2006-10-08 11:04|| 2006-10-08 11:04|| Front Page Top

#11 Tony UK

"Why people can't see this going on and extrapolate it to the NHS is a constant mystery to me..."

Because they want candy, a pony, etc. The economically illiterate think that it all freely drops down from the Giving Elf in the Sky, only to be intercepted by Bad Corporate Dwarves who make everyone pay for it. That's the essential mindset grown-ups have to deal with, which is why we're in this dilemma in the first place.

Posted by Ernest Brown">Ernest Brown 2006-10-08 11:36|| saturninretrograde.blogspot.com]">[saturninretrograde.blogspot.com] 2006-10-08 11:36|| Front Page Top

#12 This guy does a good job of explaining the
resentment of leftists.

Posted by Ernest Brown">Ernest Brown 2006-10-08 11:50|| saturninretrograde.blogspot.com]">[saturninretrograde.blogspot.com] 2006-10-08 11:50|| Front Page Top

#13 Thanks, EB. Good link to a well-reasoned article.

Posted by mac 2006-10-08 12:14|| 2006-10-08 12:14|| Front Page Top

#14 You're welcome, Mac. I put it in Opinion if anyone wants to comment on it there.

Posted by Ernest Brown">Ernest Brown 2006-10-08 12:57|| saturninretrograde.blogspot.com]">[saturninretrograde.blogspot.com] 2006-10-08 12:57|| Front Page Top

#15 It's a real eye opener to know how our numbers of students going into science math and engineering are dwindling compared to other countries. Folks coming to this country aren't educated to any high degree at least the majority of them and they don't pay into our services, mostly only using the services instead.
Many illegals and undereducated folks not paying into the already overtaxed system and expecting and getting the best free care. Hospitals have closed down and paying customers are expected to pay more.
Free would be nice, but not practical in the real world.
I forsee our system collapsing soon too.

Posted by Jan from work 2006-10-08 14:14|| 2006-10-08 14:14|| Front Page Top

#16 thankfully we don't have to wear those uniforms or hats anymore, heh. Great picture though.

Posted by Jan from work 2006-10-08 14:16|| 2006-10-08 14:16|| Front Page Top

#17 Jan from work: Atlas Shrugged.

Posted by RWV 2006-10-08 18:29|| 2006-10-08 18:29|| Front Page Top

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