Category: Consumption Inequality

Posted in Consumption Inequality, Cost of labor, Dependency, Economic Issues, Education, Free Society, Liberty, Organizational structure, outcomes, Philosophy, Policy Issues, Poverty, Representative Republic vs. Democracy, Rule of Law, Uncategorized, Wealth

Why the Pilgrims Abandoned Common Ownership for Private Property – Foundation for Economic Education

Posted on by Forum for Healthcare Freedom

Governor Bradford recorded in his diary that everybody was happy to claim their equal share of production, but production only shrank. Slackers showed up late for work in the fields, and the hard workers resented it. It’s called “human nature.”

The disincentives of the socialist scheme bred impoverishment and conflict until, facing starvation and extinction, Bradford altered the system. He divided common property into private plots, and the new owners could produce what they wanted and then keep or trade it freely.

Communal socialist failure was transformed into private property/capitalist success, something that’s happened so often historically it’s almost monotonous. The “people over profits” mentality produced fewer people until profit—earned as a result of one’s care for his own property and his desire for improvement—saved the people.

https://fee.org/articles/why-the-pilgrims-abandoned-common-ownership-for-private-property/

Posted in big government, Consumption Inequality, Cost of labor, Economic Issues, Free-Market, Government Regulations, Government Spending, Income Inequality, Liberty, Minimum wage, National Debt, Policy Issues, Poverty, Progressivism, Rule of Law, Uncategorized, Wealth

Sorry, Bernie Sanders, but Disney Doesn’t Have To Apologize for Making $1.3 Billion with Avengers: Endgame – Reason.com

Posted on by Forum for Healthcare Freedom

“More importantly, if you care about improving the quality of life and living standards over time, the essential question is always about creating broad-based, sustainable economic growth. What are the conditions that are most likely to help the economy get bigger, stronger, and more resilient? At the top of the list is a government which promulgates simple, predictable, and widely enforced rules; spends within its limits and doesn’t pursue arbitrary trade wars and military interventions; and doesn’t bog down the future with an ever-increasing mountain of debt that tamps down growth and freezes out investment. Near the bottom of the list is something that is part of Sanders’ policy repertoire: Announcing bold new plans (Medicare for All! Free College for All!) without even pretending to know how to pay for them.“

https://reason.com/2019/04/30/sorry-bernie-sanders-but-disney-doesnt-to-apologize-for-making-1-3-billion-with-avengers-endgame/

Posted in big government, Consumption Inequality, Dependency, Economic Issues, Education, Entitlements, Government Spending, Policy Issues, Poverty, Tax Policy, Uncategorized, Wealth

Watch “Milton Friedman – The Robin Hood Myth” on YouTube

Posted on by Forum for Healthcare Freedom

The Political Dogma:

Government social “reinvestment” programs benefit the poor at the expense of the wealthy.

The Political Reality, as instantiated by Director’s Law:

Public program expenditures primarily benefit the upward rising middle classs at the expense of the wealthy AND the poor.

Posted in Consumption Inequality, Currency Manipulation, Economic Issues, Entrepreneurs, Federal Reserve, Free-Market, Government Stimulus, Interest rate manipulation, Policy Issues, Wealth

How Private Banks Create Bubbles — with the Help of Central Banks | Mises Wire

Posted on by Forum for Healthcare Freedom

Observe that while fulfilling the role of the medium of savings, money is not savings. An increase in money will not result in more savings. An increase in savings requires the increase in the production of consumer goods all other things being equal. Through money, people channel real savings, which provide support to economic activity.

Once real savings are exchanged for money it is of no consequence what the holder of money does with the money. Whether he uses it immediately in exchange for other goods or puts it under the mattress, it will not alter the fact that his real savings are already employed towards the expansion of real wealth.

In a free unhampered market economy there will be a harmonious and sustained change in the pattern of consumption with a rise in consumers’ real wealth. With an increase in real wealth, individuals are likely to strive to acquire various less essential goods and more goods that are luxurious. This harmony however, tends to be disrupted whenever the central bank pumps money.

Source: How Private Banks Create Bubbles — with the Help of Central Banks | Mises Wire

Posted in big government, Consumption Inequality, Dependency, Economic Issues, Entitlements, Free Society, Free-Market, Income Inequality, Job loss, Liberty, Poverty, Progressivism, Uncategorized

The IMF’s Recipe for Equal Levels of Decline and Stagnation | International Liberty

Posted on by Forum for Healthcare Freedom

…after reading a new study from the International Monetary Fund, I’m wondering if I’m underestimating the left’s fixation with inequality and the amount of economic damage they’re willing to inflict to achiever greater equality of outcomes.

Here are some introductory passages to explain the goal of the research.

https://danieljmitchell.wordpress.com/2017/11/15/the-imfs-recipe-for-equal-levels-of-decline-and-stagnation/

Posted in Access to healthcare, Consumption Inequality, Direct-Pay Medicine, Direct-Pay Practice Models, Doctor shortage, Doctor-Patient Relations, Doctor-Patient Relationship, Economic Issues, Government Regulations, Health Insurance, Independent Physicians, Medical Costs, Medical Practice Models, Patient-centered Care, Policy Issues, Prevention, Price Tansparency, Protocols, Quality, Third-Party Free Practices

Physician Shortage: An Alternative View by the Numbers | Robert Nelson, MD | LinkedIn

Posted on by Forum for Healthcare Freedom

LW439-MC-Escher-Waterfall-19611For the sake of brevity, I am not going to show my math.  Trust me, I’m a doctor!  Here are the average panel sizes based on the assumptions above using 2012 census data.

  • FP/GP = 1,041 patients per doc
  • IM/IM-Peds = 464 patients per doc
  • Pediatrics = 552 patients per doc
  • Ob-Gyn = 642 patients per doc
  • Geriatrics = 1,237 patients per doc (this was tough to estimate, maybe way off)

Take a close look at the patient panel sizes.  Yes, they are derived from raw data and don’t represent actual practices, but they do represent every single individual via census data that were represented in the categories that I used.  Why are they so much lower than the “average” U.S. primary care doctor patient panel numbers we see quoted so often?  The panel sizes would be larger if we count those with more than one doctor, but that would be a wild guess.  But, that effect is dwarfed by the fact that I assumed every single American in the age/gender categories that I used has a personal physician, which we know is not the case. There is the issue of uneven distribution of doctors, with more in urban/suburban area compared to rural areas, tending to skew sampling surveys to higher panel sizes.  The other sampling bias of surveys may be web presence of the practice.  Again, these practices are easier to locate and contact; which might also account for why they have larger patient populations.

So it the physician shortage real?  I don’t know.  I do know access to supply is out of balance and we can do much better with some efficiency enhancers.

Source: Physician Shortage: An Alternative View by the Numbers | Robert Nelson, MD | LinkedIn

Posted in Consumption Inequality, Economic Issues, Government Spending, Income Inequality, Job loss, Keynesian Economics, Minimum wage, Policy Issues, Poverty, Progressivism, Tax Policy, Uncategorized, Unemployment, Wealth

Nobody Is Pushing Thomas Piketty’s Policies to Combat Economic Inequality – Michael Barone – Page full

Posted on by Forum for Healthcare Freedom

blog_piketty_r_vs_g_highlightA recent Congressional Budget Office report shows that when you measure federal taxes paid minus federal transfers received welfare, food stamps, Social Security, etc., the top 20 percent of earners pay an average of $46,500. The next 20 percent pay an average of $700. The bottom three-fifths get back more than they pay. Plus, the U.S. already relies more heavily on the income tax for revenues than any other advanced economy nation.

In other words, America already has lots of economic redistribution. American voters evidently sense that more redistribution would sap economic growth. They’re willing to throw a little to minimum wage earners, but they don’t want to kill the geese laying the golden eggs.

Americans are not alone in feeling that way. You don’t see much demand for Piketty policies in other countries either.

via Nobody Is Pushing Thomas Piketty’s Policies to Combat Economic Inequality – Michael Barone – Page full.

Posted in Consumption Inequality, Doctor shortage, Economic Issues, Medicaid, Patient Choice, Patient Compliance, Patient-centered Care, Policy Issues, Quality, Reforming Medicaid, Uncategorized, Wait times to see a doctor

Is Medicaid-Associated Overuse of Emergency Departments Just a Temporary Surge? | Health Policy Blog | NCPA.org

Posted on by Forum for Healthcare Freedom

Rates of Emergency Room Visits per Quarter

What is important to remember about Medicaid and similar programs is that you can sign up when you need care. People with private insurance can only sign up during open-enrollment periods.

Sure, the people who sign up for Medicaid will consume a lot of medical care and then drop off. But they will also drop out of Medicaid until they need it again. Meanwhile, eligible people who become sick will sign up next month. It never stops.

And it certainly does not address the problem that Medicaid provides poor access to physicians. If it did, the newly covered would not have had to flood hospitals’ emergency departments.

Is Medicaid-Associated Overuse of Emergency Departments Just a Temporary Surge? | Health Policy Blog | NCPA.org.