Thursday, August 13, 2009

From the "Lies, damned lies and…" file.

The results of a new Gallup poll aimed at measuring the effectiveness of the Republican riots at health care town halls is being reported and fairly widely repeated thusly...
Independents by 2-1, 35%-16%, say they are more sympathetic to the protesters now.
That, of course, is a lie.

It may be that among the limited class of independents whose opinions have shifted in response to the activities of the tea birthers, twice as many are expressing sympathy for the shouters. Independents as a whole though, by nearly 2-1, 65%-35%, do not "say they are more sympathetic to the protestors now."

A good many of those, I'd imagine, are like myself. Having never had any sympathy for the willfully ignorant, I can't have any less. Regardless of their reasons, though, the truth is the exact opposite of the report.

Labels: , , , , , , ,

1 Comments:

Anonymous Cash for Clunkers said...

Basic economics dictates that when the price of any good or service is reduced, possibly to zero, the quantity demanded of that good or service will increase.

Economics also dictates that when compensation for a specific job, profession, or endeavor is decreased, fewer people will participate in it.

Applied to health care, that points to a problem finding enough qualified doctors in the future. If the end user price is reduced, regardless of the actual cost more will avail themselves of the service.

In this case there will be fewer providers, because the decreased compensation imposed by government mandate (ala Medicare) will ensure a decrease in the numbers of providers. Health care resources are finite, whereas the demand is much less so, especially if end user cost is reduced or eliminated.

That is problem number one. Problem number 2 is that many people just do not want increased government involvement in their lives. Increased government involvement in health care, especially to the extent being proposed in the house bill(s), will virtually guarantee that governmental influence over the lives of common citizens will be far greater than it is today.

Problem 3 is that when the government gets involved in any program, efficiency goes down and costs go up. There is absolutely no reason to believe that health care would be any different. Our budget deficit is already going to cause our economy huge problems in the (not too) distant future, and shifting a huge percentage of the health care burden to the tax payer will only make the situation worse.

12:05 PM  

Post a Comment

Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]

<< Home