[ExI] Medical Costs

[Tom Tobin]

On 2/19/08, Lee Corbin <lcorbin at rawbw.com> wrote:
> Tom writes
>
> > What *does* seem broken under the current system is the extraordinary
> > care that goes towards newborn infants, vs. mediocre care for many
> > adults.  Any adult of at least middling intelligence is worth more
> > than *any* infant, and it strikes me as insane that medical resources
> > are poured towards the latter without any thought to cost.
>
> Let me tell you about a fairly obscure but very interesting practice
> in some western societies that used to address this. True, on the one
> hand good arguments can be made that adults are more important;
> but on the other hand, good arguments can also be made that
> "children are our future" and that they should be deemed the
> more important.
>
> How to resolve this impasse?  Oh, I know---your solution as most
> people's is "let's vote!", and then the winning sides gets to force the
> losing side to do it their way.

Except *no*, no, it isn't.  I abhor democracy.  I thought that
might've been clear from further on in the same message: "I'm worried
more by democracy than by progressive taxes.  :p"  Enlightened
dictatorship for me, thankyouverymuch; barring that, I'd prefer as
much "constutional" and "republic" as I could throw around.

> I know that it seems odd not to have the government just *force*
> the optimal solution on everyone.  After all, the government can
> hire extremely smart people to figure out what is best, and then
> see to it that everyone follows the prescriptions of these regulators
> (alphabet agencies) or law-makers (federal court justices). But
> I'm telling you, it actually worked better back then using the old
> traditions, called, incidently---for future reference---freedom
> and liberty.

Until we hit serious cognitive enhancement, we're not dealing with
rational, or particularly bright, agents when we're talking about
people.  (Not meant to insult anyone in particular; I don't consider
myself particularly bright or rational in comparison to what I *could*
be with a few choice upgrades.)

I *am* ambivalent about libertarianism vs. the liberal-welfare-state
when it comes to transhumanism, I'll admit; the welfare state is
better for *unaugmented* humans, but becomes stifling for
transhumans/posthumans.  I don't know how to resolve this; I'd be
better off here-and-now under a solid welfare state, but I'd curse
myself the moment the serious cog upgrades came along ... but one
might not *get there* without the welfare state.  ::sigh::