I’d simplify it to the reason people started getting insurance as a benefit was wage caps were put in place in the 1930s or early 40s. Companies were permitted to give health insurance as a benefit to sweeten their comp package without breaking the wage cap. Additionally, the IRS determined it was tax-deductible. The reason people continue getting it as a benefit is it would be political suicide to change it. I agree, it does help people afford insurance which is part of the political suicide. Also, the tax benefit helps.
I assume you’d get affinity groups buying together, if it were permitted on a market, that would simulate the bulk purchase that corporations represent.
It would be nice to go toe-to-toe with employers over this, but unions have largely been gutted, and whispering those words often gets you shitcanned (Starbucks and Amazon as examples).
These cost of care debates are so incredibly un-serious. Financing the healthcare system and the cost of care are two entirely different things and talking about transparency of what your MRI costs is nothing but a cute little distraction. Here's the answer in a word: poverty. Healthcare cost in this country is the end of the line for all the ways this country ignores poverty. There's no way to argue around it, there's no cute financing reshuffling that'll do shit about it. Too many, too poor, for too long. That's how we got here.
Saw a tech CEO talking about taxing estates at 50 percent then every American gets 65k(currently) when they turn whatever age or bars we set to get it. His idea was 25. Was an interesting distribution of estates I hadn't heard of trying before.
Feel like libertarians think poor people are these passive little societal NPCs that just walk around kicking tin cans down the alley going "phooey, I'm poor" forever until they die. The ways and amount poverty costs us while we refuse to address it because of some malignant, esoteric economic principles is infuriating and also it is killing us.
Definitely feel like it will be a thing in ten years where people laugh that we thought it was potentially going to end humanity it's so powerful
I'm gonna remember this post when I read your obituary stating your IO8 toothbrush ended up suffocating you the first night of the war against machines
I have a 3 year old with Down syndrome that had a lobe of his lung removed at 4 months old. We give both time and money to support organizations that help children with complex medical needs as well as a local children’s hospital. Before we had this happen in our life, I gave time and money to People Serving People, and Habitat for Humanity. Is that a lack of empathy?
Do you honestly think giving money and time is the way to solve the healthcare crisis inflicting this country, especially when we have basically every other major nation doing MUCH better with outcomes at a population level under a nationalized healthcare system?
Having been heavily involved intimately in this type of thing, donating time and money and being heavily involved in fundraising for those causes is really awesome but entirely insufficient to cover the actual need.
Right, my point is that you can be a very good person who has been delt a very unfair hand and still miss how much the individual personal responsibility angle doesn't even scratch the surface of the actual problem.
Tbh no judgment aginst Rabid because I think he's a good dude but I think it's wild to have that sort of thing and still believe in personal responsibility and self determination and that meritocracy is fundamentally a thing. You'd think getting personally impacted by something that they had no part in causing would sort of shake that belief system. Especially if you more closely see the inner workings of the healthcare system.
I wish more people would either work or have a spouse work in public schools, especially poor ones, too. That'll shake your belief in individual personal responsibility pretty heavily. That + knowing that statistics are a thing kind of show how much people are an output of a bunch of inputs they never had a choice in.
I spent way too much time this holiday arguing that the Americans with Disability Act isn’t violence perpetrated by the govt with Libertarians. Somehow not discriminating is a huge cudgel against the righteous business owner although I couldn’t get one person to tell me the business they own that the ADA has caused insurmountable obstacles to success.
I'm at a point in my life where I'm much closer to believing that free will doesn't exist than I am believing in societal personal responsibility.
Out of all the things to hate the ADA is certainly a choice. Respectfully to your fam or whatever, if you hate the ADA you're an abject piece of shit.
I’m not trying to solve a healthcare crisis. I don’t work in healthcare. I’m not making proposals to change our healthcare system. It’s such a messed up market because of things inherent to healthcare but also due to previous sins that politicians don’t want to undo. People in this thread seem infatuated with how would a libertarian remake healthcare. Please take me at my word when I say I’m not a healthcare wonk and don’t have strong opinions about how to fix a system with so many embedded problems.
Should we read this as a commitment to understanding the actual implications of how a libertarian would remake the healthcare system prior to voting for them in any election where they would have influence over that system?
Also because what's the point of having a political ideology you identify with if it can't answer one of if not the most important political problems of our time
Well, I’m not running for office. Would you hold every person that identifies as Democrat or every Republican to the standard of speaking for all politicians for their chosen party?
It’s one of the most complex (to operate within or redirect) and as we’ve seen, neither major party can get it right even when they have a filibuster proof majority.
I see why you would say this and I've said something similar before but it's not a minor implication. It's huge. And I get why avoiding the topic would be preferable to really asking yourself what you think. But I'd give it a real internal investigation
What if I told you that their inability to get it right is actually a refusal and that it's driven by affinity with your stated beliefs.
On an issue as significant as healthcare, yes. Doesn’t mean I’d say they have to agree with the candidate’s position, but they should be able to understand it in the context of the platform as a whole when describing why they are voting for that candidate.
Democrats also don't want a single payer because they're also largely corporate shills. Doesn't make the obvious solution less obvious.
I literally came here to respond to someone insinuating fascism is when the government does less and that a libertarian (who happens to be Jewish) was basically Hitler.
profit motive destroys function of this system look guys I don't know what to do about this but I do believe the profit motive will fix it
you literally came here to respond to a tweet about Milei approving workers to be paid in perishable goods with a tweet about what a good speaker he is. The facism comparisons came later.
Let’s just agree to revisit Argentina in 5 years and compare the before and after. He has an uphill climb, given the coalitions in government that stand against him.
It's telling about libertarians when liberty is always always always discussed in the context of liberty of capital and not of labor. If you need to know one thing about libertarianism that's it. It's not about liberty for the person. It's about liberty for the business owner.
The core belief of libertarianism (aside from wanting to fuck children) is, “Only I and anyone I personally choose should ever benefit from the fruits of my labor.” Thats great and all, unless you have a desire to live in a functioning society.