On Sat, 6 Aug 2005, joanna wrote:
> But health is not a commodity. When is the last time you woke up in the
> morning and asked yourself, "What shall I do today? Get a triple bypass or
> buy a camera?" And sick, frightened people with no medical training are not
> customers who can shop around and get the best deal for their money.
>
> I know you don't disagree with me Miles, but it's very important to argue
> that this is so because the general presentation is that people get medical
> care the way they get their spring wardrobe.
Yep. Justin almost has me convinced that maintaining a commodity economy via market socialism is a potentially efficient means of allocating many resources (almost!), but health care is to my mind something like the legal system, the highways, the libraries, and the schools: not a market commodity, but rather part of the public infrastructure that allows industrialized societies to function effectively. I agree we need to ridicule the idea that health care should be a commodity at every opportunity.
Miles