Quote:
Originally posted by Sidd Finch
Yes, I do. The Federal Interstate Highway system is the single most important economic development initiative in the history of mankind. Private firms have been allowed to build roads for decades. You want to identify a system they've built that comes close?
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The railroads. And even the Erie canal. But what government employee built the interstates? They were built by private contractors with federal money.
And what you're getting at, more generally, is identifying a market failure that gov't action could cure. No one has an incentive to create a comprehensive network of roads, so they didn't. But plenty of private toll roads have been (and continue to be) built, without government intervention. So all you're really saying is that the government did its job in solving a market failure. Not that government does a better job than the market where there is no market failure.
So, in designing health care, you have to identify a market failure that calls for a government-operated solution. The only market failure is not that, but a moral belief that everyone is entitled to "free" healthcare. That's fine, and worth voting on, but it doesn't mean that government needs to be involved in the solution any more than to move money from a rich pocket to apoor one.
