Free-market capitalist system is the best medicine

An epidemic of cerebral sclerosis: "By RANDY ALCORN — May 26, 2009
While honest debate can be effective in gaining understanding and finding solutions, debate today has too often become a competition of rigid ideologies among adamantine adherents who believe that they have found the ultimate, universal, truth in some grand philosophical doctrine."

This my response to the above article:

I agree with Ted Potts's comment. I live in India where for almost 50 years people suffered due to the socialist agenda of the country. The country saw a huge movement of brain-drain where best of country's talent-doctors, engineers all left for the western countries. In last decade or so with reforms taking place and even with half-hearted moves towards a free-market system we have seen an unprecedented levels of prosperity. I work on a poultry farm where the laborers 10 years ago were barely able to buy food and clothing are now carrying cell-phones, wear western clothing and use DVD players.

It is the current US governments agenda which is driving people back to their home countries. The author implies that freedom causes casualties without any substance. The health-insurance he talks about has become so necessary only because of the socialized medicine. It is the lack of freedom in the health-care which is causing misery and death. Even in India in big cities where the government allows private hospitals (most rural areas have pathetic govt. hospitals) it is very affordable to consult and get treated by the top doctors (some who have practised in US before). The Insurance is still cheap (free competition).

How do you know that free-market capitalist system is not the apex of perfection? It has not been seen by the last few generations. Can you imagine if there was no interference from agencies like FDA and other what kind of discoveries and cures which will be unleashed. Unlike now where thousands die waiting for trials of drugs to fully satisfy the govt. agencies.

Your last sentence needs close scrutiny. "We need open minds, uncluttered by doctrine, uncoupled from selfish special interests, and free to explore new possibilities and find pragmatic solutions." Open minds-but not to reason, uncluttered by Doctrine-even the right one? uncoupled from selfish interest-even if selfishness is a virtue? As for pragmatism, I will quote Rand here,"in pragmatist’s universe, there are no absolutes. There are no facts, no fixed laws of logic, no certainty, no objectivity".

What we need is logic, certainty and objectivity in a very healthy dose to fix the enormous problems of the medical and the political field in America.

Capitalism: The Only Moral System

Today's Denver Post published a nasty attack on capitalism. This is Ari Armstong's online comment. Here is the letter:
http://tinyurl.com/qw2z4u
And here is his reply:
I’ll untangle Brickley’s many confusions. Capitalism protects people’s right to live their own lives and interact voluntarily with others, by their own judgment, free from political controls. Capitalism means a system in which individuals rights to property and contract are consistently protected. In capitalism, the job of the government is to protect people from force and fraud.

To the degree that politicians interfere in the market, that is not capitalism, but its opposite. If “bribed governments” grant to some businesses political advantages to seize wealth by force or forcibly harm competitors, that is not “unregulated capitalism;” it is a market controlled to some degree by politicians.

Capitalism is regulated (made regular) first by a government that protects against force and fraud, and second by the independent judgment of individuals. If you don’t like a company’s products or services, don’t buy them! If you think you can do better, you are free to try. But this is not the sort of “regulation” that the enemies of capitalism have in mind. Instead, they call on politicians to control the economy and violate people’s rights.

Brickley is right about one thing: capitalism is incompatible with pure democracy. Capitalism protects individual rights. Pure democracy is mob rule, it is two wolves and a sheep voting on what’s for dinner, it is 51 percent of the population enslaving the other 49 percent.
Brickley calls capitalism, the only system compatible with the reasoning mind of man, a “religion,” and equates it with Soviet communism. This is pure projection. For the full justification of capitalism, see Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged.

Capitalism is marked by men of drive and genius developing the goods and services — the health care, the technology, the food, the housing, the cars — we need to thrive. Their motive is to produce life- enhancing products and exchange them voluntarily with others for their personal gain. No motive could be more noble.

As for nastiness, we need look no further than Brickley’s smear campaign against capitalism and capitalists.

Chocolate cake

Junkfood Science: Chocolate cake and an important message for bariatric surgery patients:
"The writers of House MD on Fox-TV did a public service last night. Unlike most television shows, House continues to punch through popular stereotypes about fat people and take on obesity sacred cows with that cutting, impudent honesty that only Dr. Gregory House can get away with."

When Doctors Opt Out - WSJ.com

When Doctors Opt Out - WSJ.com:
"We already know what government-run health care looks like By MARC SIEGEL
Here's something that has gotten lost in the drive to institute universal health insurance: Health insurance doesn't automatically lead to health care. And with more and more doctors dropping out of one insurance plan or another, especially government plans, there is no guarantee that you will be able to see a physician no matter what coverage you have."