Re: Tariffs and bikes

On Fri, 11 Apr 2025 10:24:18 -0500, AMuzi <am@yellowjersey.org> wrote:

On 4/11/2025 9:46 AM, Frank Krygowski wrote:

On 4/11/2025 3:52 AM, Catrike Ryder wrote:

>
Here's another related mind boggle:
>
The polling in the USA indicates that most people are
unhappy with the
federal government,
https://www.realclearpolling.com/polls/approval/
congressional/approval-rating
>
  yet many of them want to put government bureaucrats in
charge of
their health care.

As opposed to the current scheme in which private insurance
companies are in charge of their health care?
 
Hmm. How can we see which works better? Maybe by examining
health care costs and results for countries using each scheme?
 
By that standard, the American health care system sucks.
It's by far the most expensive in the world, and delivers
far, far from the best results.
 
Granted, that doesn't prove that a converted U.S. system
would be better. It may be that U.S. politicians could find
a way to screw it up. They seem to be almost uniquely
capable of screwing up good ideas.
 
Overall, I remain astonished by people who try to defend the
U.S. health care system. I can only assume those people are
almost totally innumerate; or perhaps on the take with the
current system.
 
 

>
It is indeed not fully government run but has strayed far
from a free market.
>
The regulations* are voluminous, draconian, excessive and in
many instances counterproductive with disincentives all
through. One great example is the establishment of PBMs and
price controls which incentivize kickbacks (the industry
says 'rebates') and padding various 'cost' bases.  Throw in
the deluge of flagrant Medicaid and Medicare phony billing
codes for fictitious services and a few hundred other
rackets, scams and shortcuts.

It's impossible for ANY healthcare to work if ANYpart of it is
outsourced to private firms.

>
UK NHS runs about US$4310 per human:
>
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cwy7zvp5xrqo

See. That was Thatcher. All the most profitable parts were
privatized. Doctors get "incentives" to ask for exams done by private
companies. The NHS has strayed so far from what it was that Geoge
Orwell would be shocked if he was alive today.
I can almost see the slogans:
Sickness is Health.
Being Born is Death

>
US runs roughly $13493
>
While there are differences in the systems (age cutoffs and
delays versus outright denials) it's not clear to me that we
have a 310% quality differential to match the price difference.
>
As economists say about that sort of systemic degradation,
'You can make fish soup from an aquarium but it's hard to go
back.'
>
>
*No industry suffers more regulation, by a wide margin. And
not only Federal regulation. States pile on in pernicious
ways too, for example one has to either cajole or bribe
regulators for permits to open a hospital or buy new
equipment for existing facilities.

--
Don't be evil - Google 2004
We have a new policy  - Google 2012
Google Fuchsia - 2021