For Certain Reasons

By internet standards, this editorial from last week is ancient news.  It might as well be written on papyrus.  However, it is very relevant and, in my opinion, right on the nose in assessing the American psyche at the moment. 

Don't worry, the irony of writing about an article decrying our dehumanization via social networking and blogs in my own blog is not lost on me.  I'm just enjoying it and moving on...so please indulge me for a moment and check out this highlight on the topic of healthcare:

Americans don’t want a European nanny state — fine! But, as a lawyer friend, Manuel Wally, put it to me, “When it comes to health it makes sense to involve government, which is accountable to the people, rather than corporations, which are accountable to shareholders.”

I've been saying this for a while now, and it's one of the reasons for my switch from kind of conservative to definitely progressive, which I will describe in more detail in a future post:  Conservatives seem to worship the free market.  I recently heard, in multiple cases, proponents describing violations of Austrian School principles as if they were violations of the laws of physics.  While I'm not even close to being anti-capitalist, I do recognize that all economic ideologies, of which free market capitalism is only one, have their strengths and weaknesses.  One simply cannot shoehorn in their favorite and expect it to solve a problem for which it was not designed.  When it comes to health care and insurance reform, I don't think it's possible to reconcile the profit motive with ethical treatment for health conditions - many of which arise nearly entirely out of our control.

I think Roger Cohen and Manuel Wally are entirely correct - this is why we have a government in the first place, to achieve cooperation between our own self-interests and competing societal interests.  To those who worship at the altar of free markets, the Milton Friedman/Austrian School ideals are the only path to a better world.  In practice, however, I believe they lead to something more like Somalia.