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Politics : A US National Health Care System? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Peter Dierks who wrote (3614)	1/5/2008 7:29:54 AM
From: Road Walker	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 42652

I have heard it said that government grants are the process of sending a dollar to Washingtron to get back 50 to 65 cents. On the high side, the saying implies that government is about 2/3 as efficient as the private sector. Government exists on different levels, but for the sake of discussion lets assume you mean the federal government. For the country, there are things that the government does that benefit ALL the citizens of the country, that probably wouldn't be accomplished if the federal government didn't fund the project. Military is one... if the private sector tried to build a cohesive, effective military it obviously wouldn't work. The highway system is another... imagine if the locals make all the highway decisions? As a kid I used to go on driving vacations with my parents every summer. Often we would take Route 66, the famous East/West "highway". Well, it essentially went down Main Street of every town in it's path from Chicago to LA. Great for the locals; the businesses thrived along Route 66. If it was up to them it never would have changed... the private sector serving it's own best interest. Then came the very good President Eisenhower with the Interstate System. You think he didn't meet resistance? Wow. But he built a highways system that made transportation of people and goods at least 3X more efficient. Our society is made up of many different social units, often with conflicting interests. From the neighborhood to the city, county, state and the whole country. It's the art (not science) of politics which decides where responsibilities lie, both financial and decision making, for different functions. Or if the private sector will make decisions, always in their own self interest, that will benefit society. So it's a very grey area... smart people can disagree on any specific issue. As we are disagreeing here on the health care system. But I do object to the libertarian 'hate and distrust' of government on almost every level. IMHO it stands in the way of the most efficient solutions to problems and progress. The ideology gets in the way of pragmatic, efficient solutions.