[lbo-talk] Gawande on the USDA model of health care

[Alan Rudy]

I heard this guy make these ridiculous parallels on NPR... you are exactly
right, he has no substantive understanding of US ag history.
Following Jim Hightower's argument from the early 1970s, the Progressive
Farmer approach Land Grant Universities, The Farm Bureau, farm machinery,
seed producers, input providers and food processors set up at the turn of
the 20th century contributed mightily to these results:

     1910 Farm Population    32, 077,000

             Farms                     6,366,000

     1990 Farm Population      2,987,500

             Farms                     2,143,150
and, of course, this is was on purpose - the idea was to drive out of the
market all "inefficient", "uneducated", "non-modern" and local- or
self-provisioning producers.  (Yeah, yeah, yeah, the growth of other sectors
of the economy drew folks away, too... it wasn't all Farm Bureau push
factors, unless you ask Farmers Union types.)
I guess if this guy has his way, we'll be able to increase medical
technology, inputs and assembly lines to the point that we can eliminate a
third of all medical institutions and ninety percent of all doctors... and
probably faster than the 80 years it took US ag... cool!
APR

On Wed, Dec 9, 2009 at 10:01 PM, Michael Pollak <mpollak at panix.com> wrote:


>
> Atul Gawande (one of the White House's idols when it comes to thinking
> about health care) seems to think that the US system of agricultural support
> payments is a model our health care system should try to emulate:
>
>
> http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/12/14/091214fa_fact_gawande?currentPage=all
>
>