Never underestimate the foolishness of anyone in a hurry. Get 535 people in a hurry at the same time, and it's Katie Bar the Door. That is what is happening to our health care in this country.
We all want to know we can go to the doctor when we need to. We also want to be able to extend our lives by undergoing a surgical procedure or taking medicine. The problem is, we still want it to cost what it did when a doctor could carry all his/her tools in a black leather bag.
The miraculous advance of medicine allows us to improve and extend our lives in ways we could not have imagined a few years ago. Instead of medicine being something that is practiced between an individual and one doctor, it is now practiced between an individual and the thousands of people whose skills are brought to bear on complex diseases. Think about an MRI machine and the almost unimaginable amount of knowledge that had to be brought together in one place for it to work.
In other words, we should expect that health care will cost more than it once did, just as a car with air conditioning and leather seats costs more than the vinyl benched oven-on-wheels we used to drive. Unfortunately, instead of letting bright and industrious people work on solutions to the problem of high health care costs, we have a government hard at work to destroy it.
Government will meddle and tinker, tinker and meddle, until they give us the equivalent of Social Security and Medicare. Hopelessly over-promised, national health care will, sooner rather than later, go broke.
What then?
They will ration care. Of course, no one will call it rationing. Instead, they will find yet another way to put lipstick on a pig and parade it around like a supermodel. Yet even in the midst of this, there is hope. As the public system crumbles, the irrepressible creative instincts of young men and women will be brought to bear on the practice of medicine. Bright people who want to use their talents to help others will find ways to offer care to the sick when they need it, not months down Waiting List Road.
This is already happening in Canada. Technically, most private care in Canada is illegal. This means that citizens cannot go outside the system by using private doctors. Fortunately, this law is rarely enforced. As a result, a host of private practices have sprung up, giving those who can pay the option of bypassing the waiting lists and suboptimal medical choices represented by the public system.
If we in the U.S. move toward a universal health care system, do not expect our government to learn anything from Canada's recent lessons. Expect instead that they will attempt to outlaw private practice. They will do so because as the public system breaks down, more doctors will move out of it in favor of serving the needs of the sick privately.
This is where the health care battle line should be drawn. The right to preserve and enhance our life and our health is as fundamental as the right to self-defense or free speech. Being forced to die or live as a cripple because one's care is not "cost-effective" enough for public funding, and then being denied the right to seek a private physician's services is an assault on any sane person's notion of freedom.
Allowed to flourish, the creative power of the human mind will bring forth new cures, new medical services, and longer, more enjoyable lives for all. New insurance structures, medical care cooperatives, and charities will emerge, providing care for those who truly cannot afford care. Instead of fighting and scratching for a limited resource, we can all contribute to creating more.
It is beginning to look like some form of government-run health care is inevitable. It won't be pretty, but it will be survivable unless they outlaw private care. If they do, consider it the equivalent of censorship or illegal search and seizure. It's your right, don't let them take it.
Showing posts with label wealth. Show all posts
Showing posts with label wealth. Show all posts
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Friday, July 3, 2009
Property: The Forgotten Freedom
I think of freedom in straightforward terms. Any individual should be free to do as he/she likes as long as it does not demonstrably impinge on the same rights in others. This idea is not new, of course, but it is largely misunderstood, especially with regard to property.
Were we all composed of pure spirit, with no need to feed, clothe, or shelter ourselves, property rights would be meaningless. Since we are mere flesh and blood, each individual needs to have control of certain things to survive. The reason is simple--most things we need are created, not found.
With the possible exception of air and sunshine, every material thing we need comes about because some individual, often in cooperation with others, has the ability, will, and desire to turn a beneficial idea into reality. Fortunately, the human race has also discovered that trading with others results in more material goods for oneself.
Who owns such wonderful things? In my view, the creator. From spear tip to computer chip, the rightful owner is the person who created it. If he/she contracted with others to create it, that contract defines who owns what fraction of its value.
Some people in society are more capable than others at producing certain things. No one wants to hear me sing opera or see me dance for Chippendale's. Yet I do not begrudge the vocalists or 20-somethings with six-pack abs their due. Neither should they begrudge me my ability to write a book or teach a class.
Inevitably, some people on the whole are able to create more value than others. They own more things as a result of their benefiting others more. They are better off than others because they are better to others. It is their ability that enables others to benefit from the things they cannot create themselves. The more benefit they provide, the more they prosper.
This is disturbing to those who are less willing or less capable. In the name of "fairness," they seek to take from the creators and give to those they deem more deserving. The most obvious example is the thief, motivated at a primal level to take by force what he/she either cannot or will not create.
Some people make a profession of taking from the creators and giving to others. They are called politicians. In addition to getting to pat themselves on the back for doing so much good for society, they get a generous cut themselves. Lacking the forthrightness of a thief, they mask their willingness to take from others by force in byzantine tax codes and arcane regulations.
What would our society look like if we were to refuse to allow either thieves or their governmental counterparts to take what each of us has created? Those disposed to believe in the fairy tale of a benevolent and fair government imagine hordes of the poor wandering the countryside, victims of arrogance and callousness of the elite. I see something quite different--the blossoming of a new human spirit.
When people are able to trade freely, they are able to tap their potential for creating value for others. Virtually all human beings have some capacity for doing so. In return, the less capable benefit from the more capable in two ways. First, goods and services are cheaper because capable people compete to provide them without fear of having a large portion confiscated by government. Second, the truly incapable, such as the severely handicapped, benefit from the benevolence of the wealthy. Humanity, for all its tendencies toward wanton cruelty and unjustified violence, has also shown a tremendous capacity for kindness and charity.
This Independence Day, we will all remember the precious rights our ancestors earned for us. Along with your ferocity in protecting your freedom of speech and religion, kindle a fierceness in protecting your property. You earned it, now fight to keep it.
Were we all composed of pure spirit, with no need to feed, clothe, or shelter ourselves, property rights would be meaningless. Since we are mere flesh and blood, each individual needs to have control of certain things to survive. The reason is simple--most things we need are created, not found.
With the possible exception of air and sunshine, every material thing we need comes about because some individual, often in cooperation with others, has the ability, will, and desire to turn a beneficial idea into reality. Fortunately, the human race has also discovered that trading with others results in more material goods for oneself.
Who owns such wonderful things? In my view, the creator. From spear tip to computer chip, the rightful owner is the person who created it. If he/she contracted with others to create it, that contract defines who owns what fraction of its value.
Some people in society are more capable than others at producing certain things. No one wants to hear me sing opera or see me dance for Chippendale's. Yet I do not begrudge the vocalists or 20-somethings with six-pack abs their due. Neither should they begrudge me my ability to write a book or teach a class.
Inevitably, some people on the whole are able to create more value than others. They own more things as a result of their benefiting others more. They are better off than others because they are better to others. It is their ability that enables others to benefit from the things they cannot create themselves. The more benefit they provide, the more they prosper.
This is disturbing to those who are less willing or less capable. In the name of "fairness," they seek to take from the creators and give to those they deem more deserving. The most obvious example is the thief, motivated at a primal level to take by force what he/she either cannot or will not create.
Some people make a profession of taking from the creators and giving to others. They are called politicians. In addition to getting to pat themselves on the back for doing so much good for society, they get a generous cut themselves. Lacking the forthrightness of a thief, they mask their willingness to take from others by force in byzantine tax codes and arcane regulations.
What would our society look like if we were to refuse to allow either thieves or their governmental counterparts to take what each of us has created? Those disposed to believe in the fairy tale of a benevolent and fair government imagine hordes of the poor wandering the countryside, victims of arrogance and callousness of the elite. I see something quite different--the blossoming of a new human spirit.
When people are able to trade freely, they are able to tap their potential for creating value for others. Virtually all human beings have some capacity for doing so. In return, the less capable benefit from the more capable in two ways. First, goods and services are cheaper because capable people compete to provide them without fear of having a large portion confiscated by government. Second, the truly incapable, such as the severely handicapped, benefit from the benevolence of the wealthy. Humanity, for all its tendencies toward wanton cruelty and unjustified violence, has also shown a tremendous capacity for kindness and charity.
This Independence Day, we will all remember the precious rights our ancestors earned for us. Along with your ferocity in protecting your freedom of speech and religion, kindle a fierceness in protecting your property. You earned it, now fight to keep it.
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Why Your Goals Don't Work
Yesterday, I assigned my students a voluntary overnight project. We had discussed goal setting in class and I wanted to impress upon them the importance of writing down and prioritizing their goals. As I generally find in my classes, only a small number did the whole exercise.
I already know why many of my students failed to follow through on this well-established method for getting what we want out of life. It is the same reason many of us fail to follow through. We say we want to achieve great things, but in the end, we would really rather stay in our comfortable cocoon of low-level misery.
We know from well over a thousand studies that goals work--that is, they lead to high performance. If you want to lose weight, make more money, or achieve anything else quantifiable, goals are the way to do it. Yet we all know how easy it is to get distracted while working on a goal. Why is that?
In my view, there are two major reasons we find it difficult to achieve things. The first stems from what I call a "mind-split." On the one hand we want to accomplish what we set out to do. On the other, we are afraid that we just might succeed. If we succeed, we show ourselves and the world that we really are capable. It renders null and void all the excuses we used before, and by implication, the excuses we may want to use in the future.
The second hindrance to goal achievement is having the wrong goals. High performance does not necessarily lead to happiness and personal fulfillment. I see this in "achievement junkies," people who crave the next chunk of conspicuous wealth or yet another trophy in a sport they have grown to despise.
Learning the mechanics of goal setting takes twenty minutes. Learning to set the right goals may take twenty years. As you set out on the great journey that is entrepreneurship, remember that getting what you really want is scary and that getting what you think you want may make you miserable.
I already know why many of my students failed to follow through on this well-established method for getting what we want out of life. It is the same reason many of us fail to follow through. We say we want to achieve great things, but in the end, we would really rather stay in our comfortable cocoon of low-level misery.
We know from well over a thousand studies that goals work--that is, they lead to high performance. If you want to lose weight, make more money, or achieve anything else quantifiable, goals are the way to do it. Yet we all know how easy it is to get distracted while working on a goal. Why is that?
In my view, there are two major reasons we find it difficult to achieve things. The first stems from what I call a "mind-split." On the one hand we want to accomplish what we set out to do. On the other, we are afraid that we just might succeed. If we succeed, we show ourselves and the world that we really are capable. It renders null and void all the excuses we used before, and by implication, the excuses we may want to use in the future.
The second hindrance to goal achievement is having the wrong goals. High performance does not necessarily lead to happiness and personal fulfillment. I see this in "achievement junkies," people who crave the next chunk of conspicuous wealth or yet another trophy in a sport they have grown to despise.
Learning the mechanics of goal setting takes twenty minutes. Learning to set the right goals may take twenty years. As you set out on the great journey that is entrepreneurship, remember that getting what you really want is scary and that getting what you think you want may make you miserable.
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Killing the Goose
We all remember the story of the Goose and the Golden Egg. Anxious to become wealthy without working for it, the farmer eventually kills the goose because one golden egg a day just isn't enough.
California voters just sent a message to their politicians that they will not become the second goose to die at the hands of the shiftless and lazy. By an astonishing margin, the general populace told Sacramento that increased taxes and smoke-and-mirrors borrowing will not fly. Let us pause to celebrate a victory.
Most Americans still believe that we each own what we create. To politicians, this is a novel idea. They prefer instead to think of wealth creators as being at their disposal. Not content with only maintaining essential services like police protection, they find in taxpayers a never-ending source of wealth to confiscate and distribute according to their notions of "fairness." Of course, "fairness" is usually linked to re-election.
Fellow citizens, we are the geese and the farmer is trying to kill us. Like California, let's send the message loud and clear that enough is enough.
California voters just sent a message to their politicians that they will not become the second goose to die at the hands of the shiftless and lazy. By an astonishing margin, the general populace told Sacramento that increased taxes and smoke-and-mirrors borrowing will not fly. Let us pause to celebrate a victory.
Most Americans still believe that we each own what we create. To politicians, this is a novel idea. They prefer instead to think of wealth creators as being at their disposal. Not content with only maintaining essential services like police protection, they find in taxpayers a never-ending source of wealth to confiscate and distribute according to their notions of "fairness." Of course, "fairness" is usually linked to re-election.
Fellow citizens, we are the geese and the farmer is trying to kill us. Like California, let's send the message loud and clear that enough is enough.
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Whose Money Is It Anyway?
Most of us work until sometime in May to pay our taxes. The rest of what we earn is ours. Hey, wait a minute. Isn't that first five months ours too?
Not according to the government. In fact, they take it before we ever get our hands on it. Those of us with jobs have taxes withheld. Take a look at your next pay stub and remind yourself how much money you DON'T get each pay period.
Here's the kicker. Far and away, it is the middle class that gets whacked for taxes. Why? Because it is easier to collect from us. The poor don't have any money to confiscate; the rich have enough money to hire people who can protect what they earn.
Is that fair? I leave that to you. But, if you decide that paying less in taxes is a good thing, read on.
Owning a side business has numerous advantages. You control it, and if you manage it properly, you can build up a solid retirement to supplement or replace your "traditional" retirement. Better yet, you can protect more of your "regular" income from taxation.
Tax laws allow numerous deductions for business. Many expenses can be used to reduce your taxable income. So, in addition to having more income, you get to keep more of your money. Be sure to use a good tax advisor, because the laws must be followed closely.
The Boston Tea Party was prompted by a 3% tax. Many of us pay over ten times that amount now. I doubt that pouring tea into the harbor will do much good these days, so throw your own little tea party. Start a side business and keep more of what was yours to begin with.
Not according to the government. In fact, they take it before we ever get our hands on it. Those of us with jobs have taxes withheld. Take a look at your next pay stub and remind yourself how much money you DON'T get each pay period.
Here's the kicker. Far and away, it is the middle class that gets whacked for taxes. Why? Because it is easier to collect from us. The poor don't have any money to confiscate; the rich have enough money to hire people who can protect what they earn.
Is that fair? I leave that to you. But, if you decide that paying less in taxes is a good thing, read on.
Owning a side business has numerous advantages. You control it, and if you manage it properly, you can build up a solid retirement to supplement or replace your "traditional" retirement. Better yet, you can protect more of your "regular" income from taxation.
Tax laws allow numerous deductions for business. Many expenses can be used to reduce your taxable income. So, in addition to having more income, you get to keep more of your money. Be sure to use a good tax advisor, because the laws must be followed closely.
The Boston Tea Party was prompted by a 3% tax. Many of us pay over ten times that amount now. I doubt that pouring tea into the harbor will do much good these days, so throw your own little tea party. Start a side business and keep more of what was yours to begin with.
Thursday, February 5, 2009
"I'm not dead yet." scene from Monty Python's Holy Grail
"In the long run, we are all dead." John Maynard Keynes
This ranks as one of the most irresponsible remarks in the history of humanity. Keynes may have filled his own prophecy. He is dead. We are not--at least not yet. But we are living in Keynes' long run and we are about to find out how wrong he was.
Keynesian economics called into question the premises of the classical theory that preceded it. Keynes thought that laissez-faire capitalism, the freedom of individuals to trade with little or no interference from the government, would lead to sub-optimal outcomes for the economy as a whole. He advocated a more aggressive role for government to counterbalance business cycles and to promote economic well-being through "stimulus" spending.
Little wonder that politicians embrace his message. Keynes' invitation to spend, spend, spend is like telling an alcoholic to drink, drink, drink. The only difference is that taxpayers get the hangover. A huge economy like ours is a hard thing to break. Because we have, at least up until now, retained enough economic freedom to entice bright people to create and sell things we all want and need, we have survived. Until last year, we even gave off the impression of having prospered. That is, until millions of retirees watched their portfolios implode. Welcome to the long run.
Many of us with limited-government sensibilities thought the last nail had been driven into Keynes' coffin two decades ago. As it turns out, he may drive the last nail into ours. Obama and his Democratic allies in Congress have conjured up his spirit, invoking heroic images of FDR, the imagined savior of the Great Depression. And lest you think this is a Republican-friendly blog, they are no better. If anything, they are more devious, pretending to prefer less government while spending like inebriated seamen. In a way, Democrats are the streetwalkers of American life. They don't pretend to be anything but what they are or they are too stupid to hide it. Republicans are call girls, cleverly pretending to be respectable, but eager to go spread-eagle for a slightly higher fee.
No amount of ranting about politicians, cathartic as it may be, will help any of us. The system has been rigged over a period of decades and is now beyond repair without radical changes. Don't hold your breath waiting for politicians to learn anything. What will help us as individuals is a realistic preview of what is about to happen and how to protect ourselves. This time, folks, it is different. We are beyond arguments about what government should do. We are about to find out what they cannot do.
This ranks as one of the most irresponsible remarks in the history of humanity. Keynes may have filled his own prophecy. He is dead. We are not--at least not yet. But we are living in Keynes' long run and we are about to find out how wrong he was.
Keynesian economics called into question the premises of the classical theory that preceded it. Keynes thought that laissez-faire capitalism, the freedom of individuals to trade with little or no interference from the government, would lead to sub-optimal outcomes for the economy as a whole. He advocated a more aggressive role for government to counterbalance business cycles and to promote economic well-being through "stimulus" spending.
Little wonder that politicians embrace his message. Keynes' invitation to spend, spend, spend is like telling an alcoholic to drink, drink, drink. The only difference is that taxpayers get the hangover. A huge economy like ours is a hard thing to break. Because we have, at least up until now, retained enough economic freedom to entice bright people to create and sell things we all want and need, we have survived. Until last year, we even gave off the impression of having prospered. That is, until millions of retirees watched their portfolios implode. Welcome to the long run.
Many of us with limited-government sensibilities thought the last nail had been driven into Keynes' coffin two decades ago. As it turns out, he may drive the last nail into ours. Obama and his Democratic allies in Congress have conjured up his spirit, invoking heroic images of FDR, the imagined savior of the Great Depression. And lest you think this is a Republican-friendly blog, they are no better. If anything, they are more devious, pretending to prefer less government while spending like inebriated seamen. In a way, Democrats are the streetwalkers of American life. They don't pretend to be anything but what they are or they are too stupid to hide it. Republicans are call girls, cleverly pretending to be respectable, but eager to go spread-eagle for a slightly higher fee.
No amount of ranting about politicians, cathartic as it may be, will help any of us. The system has been rigged over a period of decades and is now beyond repair without radical changes. Don't hold your breath waiting for politicians to learn anything. What will help us as individuals is a realistic preview of what is about to happen and how to protect ourselves. This time, folks, it is different. We are beyond arguments about what government should do. We are about to find out what they cannot do.
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