Today at work I was talking with a very liberal co-worker about stuff like Iraq and our health care system and it dawned on me that I have some really awesome
ideas about these things. With Iraq, I think that (and I know this is easy to say in hind sight) we should have never gone in there, but rather just waited and
watched very closely until we knew they had WMD's and then just bombed the crap out of their facilities (I don't know how hard that would be to do, but I think
it's possible given all the other things we can do). Because really the people of any country deserve the government that they have. If the people are better
than their government, then they should change it. Look at us, we didn't like the British, so we changed our own government. Look at South Africa, India
and all the other countries that gained independence. The only way to effect a lasting change is through the people of that country doing it and owning it.
Can you imagine future Iraqis celebrating the day that the USA came in and freed them from Saddam's tyranny? Of course not, but if they, as a people did it
themselves, then it would be a different story. And sure there would be lots of bloodshed and violence, but it's rare to have a big change without it. Now
of you might say "but no one deserves to live under such people as Hussein or Stalin" now that may be true in an individual sense, but as a whole, if the
people didn't change who their leaders were, then that is who they deserved. Take Iraq for example (Disclaimer: I really don't know a lot about it, so this
is based on limited knowledge.) Saddam was the only person for that country because since he has been out, who has stepped up to take a real leadership
role and done major things to repair that country? No one... so that tells me that they don't even have one stand out leader, and as a whole deserve what is
happening in their country. At least that is the way that I see it.
As for health care in this country. I think that it is bad and going to get a lot worse. Many people see the only way to solve the problem is socialize our
health care system. I think that would make things worse by far. If you look at things that have succeeded and flourished in this country, they almost all
happened because of the free market. If you look at things that are broken a lot of them are regulated for example education and the airline industry.
When people go to see a doctor there are usually two scenarios. First is the people who have health insurance, they come in get what they need done
and a lot of times things that they don't need done (due to doctors wanting to milk their insurance money), and leave without a second thought as to the
bill. Then there is those without insurance, they come in and get what they need done and leave without thought of the bill because they have no way to
pay such outrageous bills, and the hospital will just write it off because they can't refuse anyone care. The only way to fix heath care is by making it just
like any other service and business that competes today. When a patient comes in they should have a menu with the prices in clear view. They shouldn't
have to choose a doctor because they were in their PPO or HMO. Doctors should be chosen by reputation and price. Similar to buying a car. This way good doctors would be able to charge more and bad ones would be forced to charge less. Somehow
people have this idea that everyone should be have the same health care regardless of ability to pay, and that health care is a right that people are entitled to. This sounds like a nice thing to say, but it is just not feasible. The way things are not and especially if health care is socialized people will continue to have this mentality that they can do anything they want and someone will take care of them. If health care was treated more like a business and people would have to pay for their own health care, living a healthy lifestyle would be a financial investment, rather than just for the health freaks. Take one field that has had the most progress in the health field by far, Dentistry. They are the closest to the kind of free market that I am talking about. Many people keep up good dental hygiene habits for the simple reason that they don't want to have to pay for a dental visit. Imagine what would happen to the obesity epidemic in this country if insurances stopped paying for problems caused by obesity. People would be forced to take accountability for what they do to themselves, and not just personal accountability, but a type of accountability that truly changes peoples behavior, financial accountability. I realize that this would have a negative effect at first, but eventually people would adapt to a new system and it would work better than ever. Anyway, that's what I think. Let me know what you think.
DAVE