[ExI] The Circle of Coercion

[Lee Corbin]

Dan wrote:

> --- On Mon, 5/11/09, Stathis Papaioannou <stathisp at gmail.com> wrote:
>> 2009/5/11 Lee Corbin <lcorbin at rawbw.com>:
>>> Who could even have (on this list) imagined
>>> fifteen years ago that Voltaire's principle
>>> would be questioned? Who sixty or seventy
>>> years ago in America could have guessed that
>>> government would come to absorb about fifty
>>> percent of everyone's pay, and would soon
>>> be trying to impose communist health care?

 > I disagree with Lee's rhetoric here.  I don't
 > think it's communist healthcare; but it's
 > definitely not free market and healthcare
 > in the US has not been predominantly free
 > market for many decades now.

Wow, that word sure touched a nerve here and there,
even uncapitalized!  One was supposed to read
"collectivist". But really, just what is the
difference?

Would anyone who felt a twinge of annoyance explain
just what is *not* communistic about socialized
health-care? It's even a case of "from each according
to his ability, to each according to his need".
Isn't it? Well?

(I understand that big C Communist enthusiasts
are, ah, well, rather embarrassed here in the
aftermath of certain historic fiascos, but I
did *not* say Soviet health care. Would the
annoyance have been any less if I'd said
"socialist"? Or has big S Socialism also been
discredited?)

Lee