On Health Care And Education
I am a free market capitalist, however, I am not so blind and naive as to think free market capitalism should be applied to everything. It is my opinion that a healthy society will employ several different economic strategies to the institutions within its overall structure, depending on the role the institution plays in the society. Capitalism is wonderful for widgets, automobiles, and other commodities, but for such institutions as health care and education it simply does not make sense.
We are a community species; we simply cannot exist without help from our family, friends, and neighbors. Our ability to construct complex communities and societies is what separates us from the rest of life on this planet. It is a simple fact that the better off our neighbors are, the better off we are. Like in real estate, one crappy house can lower the overall value of the whole neighborhood.
When applied to education, we know that the better a person is educated the less likely they are to commit a crime against the community. So, the question is do we pay to educate the child, or do we pay to incarcerate the adult? It has to be one or the other, and it cannot be neither. There will be some who say that education is the responsibility of the parents and if they do not take care of this for their children it is their fault. But, this is an unrealistic argument on two levels; first, we already know the damage an uneducated child can have on our communities, and second, with the widget part of our society being free market capitalism the presence of unsuccessful and struggling parents who do not have the wherewithal to properly ensure their child's education is guaranteed.
On health care, accurate scholarship has proved the economic advantage to a healthy community, but what is not considered so much is the simple fact that all of our health is connected. Forest managers do not focus on the health the individual trees, but the forest as a whole because it does not matter how healthy one tree might be if the tree next to it is a staging area for insect and disease infestations. In human terms, we have all noticed that there seems to be more diseases floating around these days. I don't know for sure, but I would bet that there is a direct correlation between the number of diseases floating around and the number of people who do not have access to simple affordable health care. And, again, the argument that everyone must provide for this themselves falls apart when considering the realities of free market capitalism.
It is my belief that many of the problems our society faces today is because of the popular misconceptions that are held from the earliest understanding of evolution and survival of the fittest - that it is a dog eat dog world with every person for themselves. Capitalism is the economic expression of this fiercely individualistic perspective. The problem with it is that humans are a pack animal; individual survival depends of the survival of the whole pack. I think it is perfectly fine to structure a society where a persons skills and achievements are the measure of the position and comfort they have in that society, and I think it is fine for those people pass that extra benefit on to their children, but that does not make it wise to completely neglect the health and well being of those who are - or choose to be - less skilled, assertive, or aggressive.
In free market capitalism, there are winners and losers... but if the price of losing is too low, the losers will eventually stop trying to succeed within the community and start trying to succeed against the community. And from that point, it's just a game of numbers.
Have a nice day C:)


