re: #83 gamark

This would only be true if we have unlimited healthcare capacity. Because we only have limited capacity, decisions of worthiness are necessary to allocate that capacity even with so-called “universal” health care.

And that’s one of the problems with “universal” health care. The struggle for existence continues, but it continues in the political realm.

In a market economy, to get the stuff you want and need, you work hard to deliver to others the stuff they want and need. When goods are parceled out through political channels, you work hard to deliver electoral victory to your side.

Where shall the new hospital be built? Who shall get jobs in it? What equipment shall it have? All these decisions will ride on who did what for whom in the last election. On who won.

With more and more effort going into the zero-sum game of politics, the supply of real goods and services dries up, and the political struggle becomes ever more bitter.