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Politics : Ask Michael Burke -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Knighty Tin who wrote (35003)	11/1/1998 5:43:00 PM
From: Richard Nehrboss	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 132070

Mike,  However, any industry that is allowed to run without regulation often kills the consumers and, sometimes, innocent bystanders, such as tobacco and street drugs. The Market is the best regulator.  I'm curious if any of our bright colleagues can give me an example of an industry with government regulation that is not more efficient and better self regulated than that of the private sector. True, if we imagine a medical system with no regulation, we can envision a system that would take advantage of and kill many.  I would submit, that our legal system (which needs fixing as well) would take care of that.  You kill someone, because your elixir is made of arsenic, good-bye, throw away the key.  But such a system would have a wider spectrum of low to high cost doctors, facilitating more care to more people. A small example:  Not too long ago, my wife had a baby.  When we found out she was pregnant, we were in Belize, a year into sailing around the world.  We went to a doctor in Belize (many times, third world doctors are trained in the  US).  She had an ultrasound, etc.  $20 US.  Same visit in the states, $154.  hmmm?   We have a system where supply is kept artificially low through regulation. In the end, we debate the micro-view of the broader socialist/capitalist debate.  No one watches out for our dollars/health/what-have-you, than we do....  Many have been duped by a government convincing them of the evils of the world, and therefore, government should take care of us. I'm not without heart.  In fact, now that our capitalistic society has allowed me to achieve financial success in a non government regulated industry, I can alter my focus to philanthropy.  I just believe that everyone's boats are lifted (optimally?) by the free market system.  It's one of the few (possibly only) areas where I feel balance is inappropriate  We need only compare the great USA to other countries, taking in what we've accomplished in a short 200 years.  There are countries with more and less resources, countries with more and less land mass, people etc.  We've been vaulted to our position largely in part due to our economic system. I ramble.... Does the surprise in GDP veer off a 1999 recession? I enjoy you all. Richard