[ExI] readers digest version of hayek

spike spike66 at att.net
Mon Oct 28 14:57:38 UTC 2013


>... On Behalf Of BillK
>...
>
>>... I'm pretty sure I could have gotten the whole site built for less than
$20 million, and still had $10 million in profit.  Kelly
>

>...That's not the way government contracts work.

>...The 600 million includes paying for jobs (necessary or not) in their
area, to get popular support.

>...The same system works at state and city level, except it is possibly
even more corrupted. Jobs and contracts for family and friends, etc.  BillK
_______________________________________________


BillK, if this is done on a national level, there is only one big rich
corrupt customer, and as it turns out, only one big rich corrupt contractor.
If the whole scheme is done at the state level, most states do not have
hundreds of millions of dollars, so it forces some simple alternative
designs.  With fifty potential customers, someone somewhere, perhaps one of
you software wizards who read ExI, join the competition.  Then someone
somewhere hits on the obvious solution: 

1) the state governments create a big spreadsheet, companies on the left,
maladies across the top, with a price column,

2) the insurance companies fill it in with the deal they are offering and
their price,

3) the customer downloads the whole thing, shops around in anonymity,
chooses a plan or opts out,

4) the customer goes to the company they chose,

5) the company collects the information it needs and only that information
from the customer,

6) the insurance company applies to the federal government on behalf of the
customer for a subsidy, if the customer qualifies, based on income,

7) the subsidy is paid to the insurance company if the patient qualifies,
reducing or in some cases eliminating required insurance payment,

8) the opt outs pay an extra tax, which is extracted from their tax refund
if one is due, otherwise nothing happens,

9) use the opt out tax to create a pool of funds to pay for the subsidies,
so that the whole system is self-sustaining, removing it from being
threatened if the government is short of funds.

Alternative to number 8, the opt-out tax is collected by the state
government, which does have the authority to place a lien against your damn
property if you fail to pay, or withhold your drivers' license and car
registration.  States can do things like that; the Fed cannot.  The
constitution was written and signed before there were cars, and the founders
intentionally set a high bar to change it.  This makes the federal
government too big and clumsy to change course, like a big lumbering
dinosaur.  But states operate more like a big flock of birds, who can change
direction when one bird sends the signal.  State governments can change
their constitutions however, and often do.

None of this requires any enormous multimillion dollar multi mega-line code
package, doesn't require the snoopy-doopy federal government asking personal
questions.  Some state or several will find this easy path and do it.  Then
that state is held up for the others as an example of how to do a
government/commercial partnership correctly, and the whole flock pivots on a
feather, off they go in the RIGHT direction.

Compare that vastly simplified (and legal) approach to the failed ObamaCare.

Any questions?

spike




More information about the extropy-chat mailing list