Help SSB, understand terror, think about health care, and read about phasers!

[skreidle]

Help SarahScott reach her fundraising goal for The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's Team In Training! (She has to raise another $2000 by September 14th!)

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Via xviragox: Fear Itself. In this era of the suicide bomber, would you ride a bus in Jerusalem? Gene Weingarten did -- to better understand the psychology of terror. Not the psychology of the terrorist -- the psychology of the terrorized. It's well worth the time to read, as is the discussion that followed.

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Via kitiara: Why Is There No Car Insurance Crisis?

Is there something special about health insurance that makes it crisis-prone? I mean, we never hear about the horrible "house insurance crisis" or the "spiraling cost of auto insurance." It wouldn't be too hard to create such a crisis though. In fact, let's try to map one out. Just imagine if politicians resolved that, since automobiles are vital for getting people to work, companies ought to provide for the care and maintenance of its employees' vehicles.

So political pressure is applied to employers-- maybe through the tax code, or perhaps legislation is passed outright; and, before long, auto insurance is restructured to cover not merely accidents, but routine maintenance and service. For a monthly premium and a $10 or $15 "co-pay," your car insurance would cover the cost of an oil change, tune up, new tires, whatever it needed.

Something odd would begin happening though. Mechanics would stop hearing the now pervasive, "How much will it cost?" Why? Because if all you had to do is plop down ten or fifteen bucks and your insurance paid the rest, why would you care what the mechanic charged?

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"America doesn't have a health care crisis. It has government crisis."

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BBC Sci/Tech: Set phasers on stun

Comments

[skamille.livejournal.com]

Hehehe... "Capitalism Magazine"...

[skreidle.livejournal.com]

And the author's an objectivist! But I think he makes a valid point. :)

[skamille.livejournal.com]

Well, the point of "people with insurance don't really see the cost of the things they're getting" is valid. But he jumps to some pretty absurd conclusions from that. Health care is not just expensive because there isn't enough capitalism (hell, some of the expenses of health care are arguably due to too much capitalism). As usual, a person with a narrow view only sees the facts conforming to his view, to the exclusion of all other pieces of the picture.

[fuzzyamy.livejournal.com]

Here, here.

This is the major flaw I see at work in the objectivist argument here:

We invented the car -- the machine is only as complex as we make it, therefore, we have a better understanding of how to fix it.

If a car is so damaged that it is, in fact, totalled, then people will be willing to accept that, and look into obtaining new forms of transit.

Try telling a person that they are totalled and not worth sinking money into.

Our understanding of the human body may never be finished, and our quest to learn how to repair and effectively maintain it ongoing, and when it comes to issues like cancer and neurodegenerative disease, can still be regarded as elementary.

These are the reasons why repairing cars and people are different in kind, and not degree. Apples and oranges.