[extropy-chat] Extinctions

[Harry Harrison]

On Thu, 15 Jun 2006 15:30:06 +0800, "BillK" <pharos at gmail.com> said:
> On 6/15/06, Lee Corbin wrote:
> <snip>
> > I'd be willing to bet that 70% or more of health costs can be
> > traced to the failure to have a free market in health care,
> > and to regulation.
> >

Ignoring for a moment patent protection which also holds in comparable countries,
you almost certainly dead wrong.

The costs seem to be related to having a (relative to other countries) free market with asymmetric information in something that is a superior good. Patients have few resources and great needs so are gullible. The free market in this case preys on their gullability and has high over heads in associated advertising and manipulation.

The free (evolutionary) market might give you trees through competition over sun light, but grass catches just as much light and doesn't have the overhead of a trunk. Is that good or bad? Depends on your metric.