Health care

It's economics day evidently. I found another good article on why Health Care Reform won't work here at the Fiscal Times ,there is also a blog post here from the comments section that makes some fine points. Then there is this from the CATO Institute. Again government interference in markets distorts said markets.

Cash for Clunkers

  It's been slow at work for the last 8 months but really slow the last two, now February and March are typically kinda slow in the auto repair biz but this is pretty amazingly bad. Yesterday in my ample free time at work it occurred to me that I had forgotten one of the probable contributors to this time of suckage... Cash for Clunkers.
  Anyone who had the cash or credit went out and bought a new car because our federal government subsidized the purchase price and then required said old cars drivetrain be permanently disabled so those cars didn't go back into the market.  So people with the money for repair or maintenance on their "gas guzzler" bought a new car, after all if Uncle Sam wants to help pay for it, why not?
  Well here are a couple reasons 1) New car sales crashed after the program ended putting lots of stress on dealerships and their commission paid salesmen. 2) It depresses the vehicle maintenance market which means a lot of small businesses and their employees are heavily stressed and dipping into their cash reserves. Some shops and techs will die from this drop. 3) It creates a market bubble very similar to the housing bubble there are economic incentives to get people in cars now and worry about whether they can afford them later. 4) It means I need to go get a part time job or start doing side work at home which I hate for a multitude of reasons but pays pretty well as I have little traditional overhead.
  Those of you who don't know an automotive mechanic or technician as we sometimes like to be called are asking what does he care if it's busy or not that just means more time surfing the web or whatever and getting paid, nope to the paid part. See most techs work on what is best called commission meaning I get a piece of every billed hour of labor. Some shops also guarantee their techs a certain base salary, usually an unattractively low number to encourage productivity, but many don't and where I work is one of those, so no work equals itty, bitty, teeny paychecks that don't cover expenses. I'd get a new job but no one is hiring....the market is depressed by a much higher than normal number of new cars on the roads which will need little to no maintenance for the next 100,000 miles.
  It is another example that shows government interference in markets always damages some other portion of said market.

From Cato

Obama has several models to choose from: He could reverse his tax-spend-and-regulate policies and hope for the same economic and political results that Reagan achieved. He could, like Bill Clinton, recognize the political obstacles to his sweeping ambitions and learn to work with Republicans on modest reforms. He may well end up like Lyndon Johnson, with an ambitious domestic agenda eventually bogged down by endless war. But I don't think his wished-for FDR model — a transformative agenda that is both popular and long-lasting — is in the cards. Read the whole thing.

Something for Rahm and Obama to ponder

Obama’s Other Massachusetts Problem
From the Cato Institute using the CBO numbers and stats
"Our study evaluates Massachusetts’ 2006 health law, which bears a “remarkable resemblance” to the president’s plan." Just something to think about before losing a bunch more seats in "safe" democratic areas.

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Government is not the answer

What is Driving Rising Healthcare Costs? — The American, A Magazine of Ideas

Ace of Spades HQ

From the comments section comes a really great idea:
In order to pay for all the liberal programs and the expansion of those on the government payroll, I propose we the people require anyone who wants to be a politician to have to pay a special "Politician Tax" on their income at the percentage rate of the National Debt to GDP. In addition, for each law or bill proposed by a politician there should be an additional tax or fee based on their income(including those who vote for it!) at the percentage rate the legislation, once passed, will add to the current budget. Maybe then, we can get back to responsible government which is for the benefit of all Americans.

Has Capitalism Failed? -- Seeking Alpha

Has Capitalism Failed? -- Seeking Alpha
It hasn't and our current version isn't very at levels above the retail market.

H/T to Robert V. on facebook for aiming me to an interesting website.

More libertarian ideas

Too big

Continued ideas

Crash,
I agree in theory but frequently we have little or no choice but to buy from a corporation. I'm not a fan of big government either but we can elect new people if we don't like their policies. True the election process weeds out the best people prior to the elections but we can still elect new people. We just did. We never get a vote in the corporate world except in cases where we buy from a different company. Many, if not most, of the things we really need we get from mega-corps over which we have no control at all. We don't get to vote for oil company executives, or set their salaries, and it doesn't matter much if I guy from one station or another they are all mega corps.
I'd like to be able to vote for both government offices and corporate officers. My main point is not that I prefer big government but rather that I dislike, and fear, the ruthless avarice of big corporations. Until Bush I never felt that the government would kill me just for some private agenda. I don't think it would happen now unless I do something really criminal or stupid. I do think that a corporate board would murder me and sell my pieces on ebay if they could make a buck and not get caught.

Response
I think I am becoming less of a fan of government as I get older, I have become considerably more cynical since first voting in 1980.
Would you prefer business to be state owned or controlled? Has that worked well for Russia or China? Did it work out well in Cambodia? Can you give me an example of something that I need that I have to buy from one company? It seems I may choose from several different oil companies or even choose to live close enough to work that I could ride a bicycle or walk. With computer operating systems I can choose Microsoft, Mac or Linux with 20 or 30 others having at least a little market share. If I don't like Super Value I can buy from Econo foods or Wal Mart or even grow my own. Will I trade some inconvenience for moral peace yes. No one is forcing me to live 60 miles from a job market that will pay me what I want to earn, I choose to. Should Brian be required by democratic vote to hire me and pay me the 28.00 an hour and health insurance I think I am worth? What if his business model won't support that? Or worse what if it could but he wants to keep that profit for himself so he can save expand his business or for his retirement? Is that fair of him, should he be forced to?
Your wanting to vote for corp officers confuses me a little bit, if you are a shareholder you can vote for the officers and have at least as much of an affect as your individual vote does in a general election. If you aren't isn't it kinda like wanting to vote in Canadian elections because they share a border with us?
I guess I think the greed of corporations is moderated by their need to sell product which makes them conform to the morals of the society they sell to. Several examples of this are at this link http://www.ethicalconsumer.org/Boycotts/successfulboycotts.aspx.
I don't think there is much other that will curb the bad behavior of government. Again a local example I wrote congressman Kind in October to state my opposition to any Wall Street bailout, he wrote back saying "although the district is overwhelmingly against the bailout I voted for it..." yippee that's exactly what I want in an elected official, someone who ignores the will of the people in his district. We should also remember when discussing the election process the incumbent has a huge advantage which has only grown with every campaign finance law that is passed. An incumbent is almost guaranteed to be re-elected unless found in bed with a dead girl or live boy.
I agree Bush/Cheney sucked big donkey dick as did McCain that doesn't mean I am giving a pass to Democrats or President Obama (as cool as I think it is we elected a guy who proves the promise and ideals of America and I think it is really damn cool). Government won't kill us over a private agenda, it will kill out of indifference to the individual or bureaucratic mistake or because it has a plan to improve lives and you are in the way or don't want to get with the program. Witness the 35 million Mao killed to fulfill his dreams. Or what of the millions of educators and the middle class killed by Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge chasing an collectivist agrarian utopia.
Sure we could shrink government too far and end up with a Somalia but on the whole I am more a proponent of privatizing government functions, I am of the opinion (I know every one has one and they all smell) that it would cost me way less in the long run and I may even get a kiss or two first.

Oh no I'm going anarchist,
Scott

Obvious truths

Government produces nothing, zip, zilch, zero, the very most it can do is redistribute something someone else made or possessed. When we talk about trillion dollar bailouts the government isn't paying because it has nothing to give without taking from us first. You might argue that the money is being borrowed from China or Saudi Arabia or wherever but at some point it needs to be paid back at which time we the people pay it not government and we do it because if we do not the State will force payment through confiscation or by using force.
I suggest this is ethically and morally wrong. A government operating with the consent of the people has no need to force payment, the people will voluntarily pay for it's operation. It is only when it oversteps it's proper bounds that force become necessary to use ensure compliance.
I have no problem with user fees, license fees for things not protected by the BoR such as freedom of speech and assembly or the right to keep and bear arms, I don't mind consumption taxes such as sales tax or gas tax because I have a choice whether or not I consume. I do object to the confiscation of my money by my empoyer at the behest of government before I see it. I think it allows government to expand without being accountable to the people it is meant to serve and that is just not right.