The Reality of Medical Care

People forget that words have specific meanings and that certain ideologies can accrue very real negative consequences; whether intended or not. The health care question is not merely what type of government takeover we want, but how much our government can fake reality. American’s today are so far disconnected from reality that their concept of rights, among other concepts such as medical coverage versus medical care, has been eroded to mean whatever politicians or intellectuals tell them it means.
Ignoring facts has deadly consequences. For example, many American’s are under the impression that other industrialized countries are far superior to America because they all have some form of single-payer government medical care. The idea that a whole country is ‘covered’ for medical services will not alter reality. Medical services are a limited resource and thus it is impossible for every person in a country to have access to their own MRI, CAT, or private doctor twenty-four hours a day. Rationing must take place. The possible choices historically are to either allow the government to ration in any way it sees fit, or to allow prices to ration objectively in a free society. Looking strictly at the practical results it is the latter option which has proven far superior.
In Canada, a country that has a single-payer system, the average time a person might wait from being referred by a general practitioner to actual treatment is over 17.7 weeks according to The Fraser Institute’s annual waiting list survey. Depending on where a Canadian patient resides the time could range anywhere from two to twenty-four weeks simply to receive a diagnosis using machinery such as MRI’s, CT’s or ultrasounds. Britain is no different, worse even. In 2002 the London Observer (3/3/02) published statistics illustrating cancer patients waiting over eight months for treatments, during which time cancer can become incurable. Even taking into account America’s heavily regulated medical industry, it usually only takes a few days to receive diagnosis and begin treatment.
The evidence that socialized medical care systems are deadly can be seen by simple investigations into any countries with socialized medicine. Yet, the country always damned, America, is the one country the entire world depends on for new medications, treatments, technological advances, and more.
Another absurdity often touted is that unchecked capitalism has allowed greedy business people to run up costs on innocent and unsuspecting customers. To believe this idea is to completely divorce oneself from reality. Our government is the single largest spender of medical services in America, totaling nearly half of all spending in the industry. The so-called ‘private’ companies are subject to thousands of federal and state mandates, regulations, oversights and more. To call this capitalism is an absolute abnegation of reality.
A more serious abnegation is American’s vast disconnect with reality in regards to the concept of rights. To believe that someone is born with a right to have unlimited access (or any access) to medical care; is to disregard the fact that medical care doesn’t grow in nature, and that someone will have to provide this service whether they want to or not. There can be no such thing as the right to enslave.
It is claimed that every American has the right to life; after all, it says so in the constitution. Once again, words have specific meanings and to negate the concept of rights is to destroy all of humankind’s progress so far. A right can only pertain to actions. A person has a right to pursue a career in order to make money so they can buy a house or pay for a health insurance plan that fits their needs. They do not have a right to a car, a house, health care, a cell phone, a trip to Fiji or any other such good or service which must be provided at the expense of someone else.
To those who say that many American’s are unable to afford health insurance; look at reality. American’s can most certainly afford medical care. Where do you think the government gets the money it spends? They get it from the American middle class taxpayer. Although, the rich do pay higher taxes, there are vastly more middle class American’s than there are rich ones, and the burden will assuredly fall to the middle. For those truly unable to afford insurance, they must rely solely on other people’s charity. Regarding this concept and its modern negation, consider two points.
First, there can only be a small minority of people who truly can’t afford healthcare in any country considering comprehensive single-payer health care. If a majority couldn’t afford medical care that country couldn’t afford a massive government takeover.
Second, this small minority must rely on private voluntary charity, which is abundant in a free society. In the 1960’s when Medicare and Medicaid were being pushed through congress, liberals did not claim that the elderly were not receiving medical care, because they were. Less fortunate elderly people should not have to rely on charity is what they claimed. Switching the meaning of a word doesn’t change reality. If some people receive a service at no cost to them, and paid for by others, this is charity. It doesn’t matter what name someone gives it. To assume the government taking money from one group of individuals and giving it to another is not forced charity is like saying a college student receiving most of their income from their parents is ‘self-reliant.’
Evading facts of reality doesn’t change anything. To continually push our country down the road of socialism and call this a good solution is to flat out ignore all the countries throughout history that have suffered under socialist ideology. It is time we advocate “change;” let’s try capitalism for once.

The Real Goal of the Green Climate Crusade - A speech by Dr. Keith Lockitch

Come see Dr. Keith Lockitch explain what the Climate crusade is really all about.
Located in Denver Colorado on the Auraria Campus on November 18th from 6:30pm-8:30pm

The Real Goal of the Green Climate Crusade
Environmentalists claim that our use of carbon-based energy is altering the climate, making us more vulnerable to climate disasters. Human survival, they insist, requires the immediate abandonment of fossil fuels in favor of carbon-free sources. So why do environmentalist groups vehemently oppose projects involving every alternative form of energy ever proposed to replace fossil fuels—including wind farms and solar power plants? And why do they ignore the dramatic degree to which industrial development under capitalism has reduced the risk of harm from severe climate events? Before we rush headlong into drastic climate policies and energy rationing, a critical examination of these policies is urgently needed. Dr. Keith Lockitch will address these important issues and answer audience questions.

Click HERE for more information.

The Importance of the Amazon Kindle 2

It sits there, next to my computer, whirring in exalted silence, seeming to say to me, “read me! Read me!” It is the Amazon Kindle 2. For those poor uninformed souls out there, unaware of what a kindle is, put yourself at ease, I shall reveal to you the wonder that is The Kindle 2. A kindle – produced by Amazon – may be one of the next great technological improvements of our time. Simply put, it is an electronic e-book reader. While true that there are other e-book readers on the market, and soon to be more, the Kindle easily trumps them all.

The Kindle 2 (Amazon’s second version) is stock full of new goodies. It includes special gray tone technology to ensure ease of reading on your eyes – it’s just like reading a print book. The screen has anti-glare technology, and the kindle also is equipped with whisper net capabilities. Whisper net is free internet – works like a cell phone – to allow ease of purchasing new books, magazines, newspapers, blogs and more; on the go. The Kindle also has a speak to me function – although this is like listening to a robot attempting to pronounce proper names not in its dictionary, still somewhat effective for reading on the go.

The way in which The Kindle 2 will revolutionize our lives is threefold. One, people who found excuses not to read, such as difficulty in carrying books around wherever they go, will have no such excuses today; the kindle is lightweight and little thicker than a fountain pen. Next, individuals who wish to write: books, blogs, newspapers, magazines, but find it difficult to get their work published, now have a cheaper alternative. Who needs the printed word anymore? Lastly, it will save the poor backs of every student the world over! Why would anyone carry humongous loads of books around in burdensome backpacks when a Kindle can fit in the back pocket of many a baggy jean? Moreover, The Kindle 2 holds over 150,000 books, not including your own online library – care of Amazon.

This remarkable product was brought about in a free market, where the decline of readers of the printed word has opened up a whole new market. Yet again, we are given a brilliant example of free minds in open markets establishing new ways to give their customers what they want. E-reading will not eliminate reading, but enhance it; and, assuming the government stays out of this sector of the economy, the price of The Kindle and e-readers like it will drop dramatically in price as technology improves through competition – much like computers – making this wonderful product (with a battery life of up to two weeks) available to everyone. Bye-bye New York Times, Denver Post, Economist, Constitutional Reporters – PRINT – I have my kindle now, I’ll see you there.

Thomas Sowell's "The Housing Boom and Bust," A review

Before Obama took office his soon-to-be chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel uttered these words, which every American should clearly understand: “You never want a serious crisis to go to waste.” He added: “What I mean by that is that it’s an opportunity to do things you could not do before.” (Ch. 5) That this was said explicitly, with no consequences, is atrocious. Whether said explicitly or not, however, this seems to be the policy of most politicians today. Dr. Sowell, author of Economic Facts and Fallacies, and Basic Economics, points out the consequences of Mr. Emanuel’s statement, and how true it turned out to be. Dr. Sowell illustrates the reality of the harm caused by government meddling in the housing industry, explaining the use of ‘solutions’ in order to fix imaginary ‘problems.’ “What is called a solution in politics is often simply a patch put over problems caused by previous political ‘solutions,’” as Dr. Sowell puts it.

In the Housing Boom and Bust, Dr. Sowell shows the impacts of all the major government programs in the housing industry, and their dramatic consequences. This book holds all of the relevant necessities for anybody who wishes to clearly understand the root causes of the housing crisis; including the loud cries by some experts and public officials who warned against this disaster years before it occurred.

Dr. Sowell points out the efficiency in which the government – both the Bush administration and the Obama – passed bills such as the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP). The idea behind this bill was apparently to ‘stimulate’ a stagnating economy, in other words, get people spending money again. However, the government throwing money at banks had the exact opposite effect; predictably this was immediately blamed on the greedy Bank CEO’s and their enormous paychecks. It seems that politicians and their media cronies can always blame someone else when the very specific plans they institute fail. The TARP money, ideally, was going to trickle its way throughout the economy. “The idea sounds fine, as most political ideas do. But the real question is: Is that what has actually happened? Is that what usually happens?” (ch4) In his book, Dr. Sowell adamantly states the answer is no, and through clear empirical evidence he proves his case. As he points out, the only real increase in spending was accomplished by the government.

There has been no worse patch instituted by the government then the imaginary problem America has had with ‘affordable’ housing. Acts such as the Community Reinvestment act of 1977 (CRA) forced banks to make loans to people with bad credit history, merely because politicians wanted to give the illusion of affordable housing for everyone, and this gave way to such ‘creative’ loans as adjustable rate mortgages (ARMS) and eventually progressing to no down payment housing. When interest rates were raised by the Federal Reserve, the first people to be hit the hardest were usually minorities, the very same group of people the government was attempting to make housing affordable for, “so much for the favor being done to minorities.” (Ch. 3)

In order for politicians to reach their goal of increased power, facts must be not only distorted, but ignored. The idea that housing was somehow unaffordable in America was first untrue, and second, increased housing prices were caused by government interference in the housing markets to begin with – a pre patch, patch so to speak. The average price for a home in America is only 3.6 times Americans average income, in Great Britain it’s 5.5 times, New Zealand 6.3, as in many other places. Before the 1970’s Americans only spent around twice as much on their home as their median income – meaning “A family dedicating a quarter of its income to a mortgage could pay off a loan for a home in a little more than 10 years.”(Ch. 2) Of course, this all changed with legislation passed in the 70’s, such as CRA.

One importance economic fact to understand is that it does not cost a million dollars more to construct a house in California as it does most anywhere else in the U.S. The reason for the extra expense is land cost. However, Dr. Sowell explicates that a vast majority of land in coastal California, among many places across the U.S., is illegal to build on, which subsequently drives up the price of the remaining land, and is a major cause to the huge increase of creative financing for home loans in these regions.

There is much misunderstanding in regards to the housing crisis. Moreover, most people don’t even know who all the major players involved are. Government organizations whose duty it was to prevent a crisis like this, such as: The Federal Reserve, The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), The Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae) and The Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (Freddie Mac). All of these organizations were set up by the government in order to protect Americans from the catastrophe that they though was inevitable, their failure indicates not the failure of the free market – which they claim – but a failure to realize that the manipulation of the economy by the government can only lead to one horrid conclusion.

Beyond the major players involved in this fiasco are all of the economic misunderstandings of the housing market, which Sowell clears up. He covers the economic impacts of zoning laws, minimum lot size laws, open space laws, height restrictions, preservations laws, building permit laws and much more. In his explanation of the many impacts of these policies, Dr. Sowell elucidates the reality that when facts are pushed around Washington, demagoguery always trumps.

The only missing ingredient to this book seems to be its utter failure to defend capitalism on a moral ground. He makes the very loud claim that “rights are not the issue” and that “The purpose of Government is not to exercise every conceivable right it has. But to exercise whatever wisdom it has for the benefit of the country.”(Ch. 5) While his book shows every practical reason the government should leave the housing market alone, he doesn’t mention one moral reason. If it is practical, but “rights are not the issue” then doing the moral thing should be obligatory, and since there is no defense of the morality involved it is left open as to why we should only follow the practical reasoning. It doesn’t really matter that the government enlists laws like “open space laws” under the claim that we are destroying too much nature even though we only inhabit 10% of the land in The United States. The relevant moral problem is why does a government have the ability to force American’s to build their homes on more expensive land because some interest groups feel that land has intrinsic value?

Dr. Sowell has once again put forth a fascinating case study into the history of the housing crisis going all the way back to the 30’s, and despite its moral lacking it stands up as one of the few books giving a thorough breakdown of all the relevant factors regarding the 21st century housing boom and bust.

This book is available for sale on Amazon HERE for $16.47

Reporting myself

Below is an e-mail I sent to the whitehouse in order to report myself for opposing Obama's new healthcare bill. Ari Armstrong and many others have written in, and so should you. Read here for more information.

Here is what I sent:

I am a 24 year old film student at the University of Colorado Denver. I want to turn myself in to whoever is in charge of your thought police. I have started a newspaper, a blog, and I am currently working on a video to infect the youth on campus of that nasty word which you have no right in uttering; truth. I will ensure that many young people are aware of what you are doing to their futures. Please inform me of where I need to go in order to turn myself in for the abhorrent crime of thinking.

Tea Contest Video

This is a video Cornered Tumbleweed Productions did for a 15k scholarship. Please check it out, the more hits we get the better chance we have of winning.

Thanks for all the help everyone.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OWDgPpuH92Y