Another chat with Mr. A

So was talking with Mr. A again, and he was pushing for a full single-payer socialized healthcare system. Standard points about the superior altruistic morality of government agents versus private corporations, the obligation of taxpayers to support the less fortunate, the requirement of government to step in a "life and death" field, and the greater efficiency of a streamlined system instead of the public-private hodgepodge we have know.

And he was boastful about Obamacare being a stepping stone to his dream, right aver dismissing "Faux News" as giving paranoid talking points... such as that one. When I pointed out to him that food and housing are also required to live and are also publicly and privately funded, he dismissed that by saying healthcare was special. And the question of why public housing is so much poorer than private housing fell on deaf ears.

Instead, he gave the example of prisons and how privatizing prisons is an immoral act. Of course, the act of legal incarceration has to be done through governmental bodies. When it's done via private motivation it's kidnapping. Where it is still legal in the US to pick a doctor of your own choosing and pay them for their time. But I'll let his equating of medical care and incarceration speak for itself.

A friend of his also spoke up against "privatized" food production by noting the poor quality of fast food and the obesity epidemic. He's got me there. If there's anything socialized, commune, farming is known for it's a lack of obesity.

Mr. A also presented an argument of cost, where soup kitchens, restaurants, and farms have a far lower entry cost than medical fields, and thus the medical field has to be taken over by the government. I'll let you consider a pharma giant like Merc versus an agra-giant like ADM. Or a large industrialized stockyard versus a hospital. Or a local chiropractor and a convenience store. But there's too big to fail right here.

And don't you love a defense of reducing market barriers and increasing competition that depends on um... closing the market via a compulsory monopoly with no competition and no choice.

Why yes, he did screech about health care companies cheating people out of every nickle and dime to reduce costs and how they hurt the little guy by being giant monopolistic institutions that people had no power against. His solution? A bigger total monopoly with the full punitive power of the state to force compliance, one that will be more efficient and reduce costs to the taxpayer.

Lovely.

But don't worry if healthcare becomes single payer where all medical equipment, drugs, and consumables are paid for by the government and can only be sold to the government. If that happens the medical industry will become as streamlined and cost effecient as other single payer industries such as military procurement.

Defense contractors can only sell their wares to the US government and just look at how slim and trim our defense spending is.