[Peace-discuss] marketplace mythologies was: Insurance Companies
Should Compete
Ricky Baldwin
baldwinricky at yahoo.com
Thu Dec 3 17:15:13 CST 2009
Um ... REMOVING their EXEMPTION from anti-trust laws is "getting the government out of the way"???
This is a common misconception of how the famous "marketplace" (a ridiculous name, anyway - as if Exxon and GM were just tables at Lincoln Square). But this misconception is at the very heart of the fog that keeps the economic emperors (clothes or not) in power. It is the insidious myth that, but for the interference of "government", free
competition would keep businesses honest, efficient and meritorious, even serving humanity, etc.
In fact the reality, as long history shows repeatedly, is quite different, and often opposite. Left to their own devices (or the devices they can creatively acquire) profitable businesses engage in ruthlessly destructive wars, the very least result of which is anything resembling "efficiency" -- with the possible exception of human needs (such as clean water, air, land, food, etc.) -- and very quickly consolidate themselves horizontally and vertically into monopolies that act as they please with the lives of the puny humans trespassing on the surface of their planet.
It is against this trend, as a block and tackle against gravity, that the government enforces (when it does) anti-trust laws. But there are always opponents, who stand or believe they stand to benefit from monopolizing trends. There are others who believe this trend is so powerful that anti-trust laws are by nature inefficient (working against gravity), and the proper response of a people organized ought to be not just to allow monopolies to form, but in fact to aid them, with the eventual goal of then using the government to take them over and run them in the community interest. This of course assumes better government than we ... have ... have had ... in ... forever.
(Even when opportunities arise, i.e., the bailouts, our government smiles and announces that the problem was the biggest corporations hadn't stolen enough yet, fast enough, so we'll just give it to them - poor, little, inefficient thieves.)
Others say - as in the case of the proposed merger between NBC and Comcast - they are already too big; bust 'em up. They are given permission (by us) to run these shell games, er, enterprises on our land, our airwaves, using our waters and forests, etc., and we have the right to set some parameters.
But even proponents of this view often assume that competition is inherently good. It isn't. It's often incredibly destructive and wasteful, besides being inhumane. It leads sweatshops in New York and Indonesia, slavery in Florida's fields and in the homes of the well-to-do, the brothels of LA and Thailand, etc.
On a more mundane level, it's competition that meant that when we lived in Champaign on a certain morning of the week every week we had to be awakened repeatedly starting at 2am by THIRTEEN garbage trucks going up and down our street, each collecting a can here and there and moving on. This uses several times the fuel, produces several times the pollution, etc., as a city service - and as a result raises the price to the "consumer" (funny term when you mean throwing away trash, isn't it?). Examples of this type are nearly infinite. Yet we persist in the belief that competition somehow helps us.
But lest we (ok, I) digress too far, the issue here is health care. Do these bozos deserve exemptions from anti-trust laws? Did Al Capone? But the real answer to our health care woes is complex, surely, but just as surely includes some form of universal plan that covers everyone - single payer, national health, something. I don't say its perfect in places like England and Canada - the people there complain about it all the time - but when they hear about "our" system, they react as if you just proposed cannibalism. That's how barbaric it is.
We'd all know it if we weren't scared stiff of the Jews, Commies, atheists, gays and immigrants hiding under our beds and in our bedroom closets.
Ricky
"Speak your mind even if your voice shakes." - Maggie Kuhn
--- On Thu, 12/3/09, E. Wayne Johnson <ewj at pigs.ag> wrote:
From: E. Wayne Johnson <ewj at pigs.ag>
Subject: Re: [Peace-discuss] Fw: Insurance Companies Should Compete
To: "Jenifer Cartwright" <jencart13 at yahoo.com>
Cc: "Peace-discuss" <peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net>
Date: Thursday, December 3, 2009, 3:42 PM
Yes!
Get government out of the way (by removing the nanny-state
corporate-welfare protection)
and let the Free Market Operate.
Amen, Sister!
"a free and fair marketplace.
"
That's the stuff!
On 12/3/2009 3:25 PM, Jenifer Cartwright wrote:
--- On Thu, 12/3/09, Patrick Leahy <info at leahyforvermont.com>
wrote:
From: Patrick Leahy <info at leahyforvermont.com>
Subject: Insurance Companies Should Compete
To: "Jenifer Cartwright" <jencart13 at yahoo.com>
Date: Thursday, December 3, 2009, 1:55 PM
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Dear Jenifer,
On Tuesday, I
took to the Senate floor and formally filed my amendment to repeal the
antitrust exemption for health insurance companies.
I look forward to debating this critical measure during our
deliberations on the broader health care reform bill. After all, to
bring insurance costs down, we've got to introduce more competition in
the marketplace -- and my amendment will do just that.
Already, nearly 40,000 members of our Leahy online community --
including you -- have emailed their Senators urging support of this
amendment, and 18 of my colleagues have now co-sponsored it.
But we need more Senators to join us to get this critical amendment
passed.
Click here to invite your friends &
family to forward an email to their Senators too -- and urge them to
support our amendment to repeal the antitrust exemption for health
insurance companies!
Our amendment will introduce antitrust oversight to the health
insurance industry, ruling out of bounds egregious anti-competitive
conduct like price fixing that harms hard-working American families and
raises costs. It's an outrageous loophole that must be closed.
The health
insurance industry should compete on a level playing field just like
every other business in America, large and small, so that consumers
know that the price they're being quoted is the product of a free and
fair marketplace.
That's why our
amendment repealing the health insurance industry's antitrust exemption
is so important -- but I need your help, right now, to get it passed.
Click here to invite your friends &
family to forward an email to their Senators too -- and urge them to
support our amendment to repeal the antitrust exemption for health
insurance companies!
As we move forward with debate on the health care reform bill, much of
our discussion will be about bringing costs down while expanding and
improving insurance coverage.
This amendment is a vital part of that effort, and we've got to do
everything we can to get it passed. Please invite your friends & family
to email their Senators now.
Thanks so much for your help.
Sincerely,
Patrick Leahy
U.S. Senator
P.S. A vote on our amendment could come in a matter of days, so please
take a few seconds, right now, to make your voice heard. Please invite your friends & family
to email their Senators now.
Visit LeahyForVermont.com
Paid
for by Leahy for U.S. Senator Committee, Inc.
PO Box 1042
Montpelier, VT 05601
Visit the address below to tell your
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