John Stossel - Sick in America - Part 6 (of 6)

The world wide web (Which is not to be confused with the Internet which is older)was invented at CERN, but what Government made the computer you are using? What Government made the Operating system? What website are you looking at right now? And what video? As far as your department, good for you; it makes me glad I don't live there or pay taxes there anymore.

Competing for professors has NOTHING to do with the free market. Rival schools compete for professors within Cuba, so what? I never said abolish the free market. Sure universities benefit from industry, but it goes both ways. Fundemental research has no clear profit motive, but eventually it comes viable for industry.

I can assure you that not a single faculty in my entire department has funding from corporations. And as for the internet, this was developed at CERN and had NOTHING to do with private industry.

Equating pre-WWII Russia communist healthcare with modern-day socialized healthcare is one of the falsest analogies you can possibly have. As for your second and third sentences, you've failed to demonstrate any of these claims.

In addition, Schools DO compete for funding, students, prestige and professors. Even publicly funded schools are subject to some market forces. If a University does not come up with something industry can use, it will lose a large chunk of money. Once again, Profit drives innovation. Canada should be thrilled at the U.S.' system as it benefits tremendously from the technology that comes from the private sector.

Free Market runs on the profit motive, and human interests are not always profit interests. Care of polar ice caps, research in particle physics, the availability of free parks and streams, general human welfare, and healthcare are all things the market does horrible at.

And what about Before the Fall of communism? Healthcare sucked then too. The point is, universal healthcare is only as good as the economy that sustains it. The more social programs a government adopts, the worse the care, the fewer the innovations, longer waits and less accountability.

Once again we see the attitude of "Its Impossible for me to deal with...the Government must help." Taxes are also higher in Canada and the unemployment rate is 5.9...relatively low but the US is at 4.7 and the US Outsources much industry to Canada as well as buys the majority of its oil from Canada. Unemployment is nearly double Canada's in France and Germany. How many Bankruptcies does unemployment cost?

Industry produces FAR more technical and medicinal innovations, hands down. True that universities often have a hand in development of many breakthroughs, but that is because they have the resources and (often) financial backing from Corporations. The Internet was Web were developed by Government agencies and Schools in the US and Europe, but no one used them until private industry was introduced.

That is a very misleading stat because it implies that 18,000 were simply "turned away" to die. In reality it is because people decide not to go to a doctor for fear of it costing too much money. So diseases go undiagnosed. A problem? Certainly, but we cant ignore that thousands die in the UK due to lack of Dialysis. 57% of British prostate patients die v. 19% of Americans.

Wow that's a logical fallacy if I've ever heard one. Why does health care S**k in Russia? Would it have anything to do with the crumbling of communism? I know you want to claim that Russia is representative of socialized health care, but even Ayn Rand wouldn't make such an absurd claim.

What are you talking about? Where do you think most of the funding comes from? As I stated before most of the Funding comes from For profit industry, a little from not for profit groups and the rest from government grants. Why, if government control is so great, does healthcare S**k so bad in Russia?

No one is denying that industry can streamline the production of academic discoveries--I would never say that there is no use of the market. But we were talking about health care, and almost all medical discoveries are made by academica not industry. Can you guess which one DISCOVERED MRI?

Universities are sometimes involved, but A. not all universities are funded through taxation hence the fund raising drives and B. Things like MRI machines are manufactured by corporations like General Electric. (Yes the same company that brought you Seinfeld)

Water, Mail and Security are. The point is that Virtually nothing is beyond Free Market forces and that Private interests can often provide much better, faster or cheaper service. Besides, even Public monopolies such as Water and Power are charged to customers based on usage.