We may need one I think we should pull an Iceland and throw the bums out!
Behind “The Public Option”
I’m still in Boston, and was handed a flyer in the downtown area near Boston Common. The flyer announces a rally Thursday that will be held to support a “public option” for Obama’s healthcare program. Of course, in my view, the public option will lead to the killing off of the old and holding back of care for quadriplegics, for starters.
As Peter Schiff speculates:
My guess is that the government provider will mis-price its policies on the low side, pushing employers to dump private sector insurance for the taxpayer-subsidized alternative. Such a system will further distort health care pricing and, ultimately, make a bad situation intolerable.
Of note is that the rally is being sponsored pretty much by union groups. The flyer lists the sponsors as:
The Greater Boston Labor Council
AFL-CIO
North Shore Labor Council AFL-CIO
Boston Building Trades Council
SEIU Massachusetts State Council
United Electrical Workers Northwest Region
AFT Massachusetts
Jobs With Justice
As PEU report has alluded to in a comment and as von Pepe notes in a comment, part of what is going on is union building:
I am convinced that the main goal here is to unionize the healthcare workers (most government employees are union e.g. police, fire, teachers, auto, etc.)
The real goal is dependency and voting blocks to consolidate his power.
Disgusting anti-capatalist mentality
.That is clearly part of it. It also dovetails with Obama’s view of himself as the great leader that will fix healthcare by liberally sprinkling in socialism. What an interventionist mess.
http://www.economicpolicyjournal.com/2009/07/behind-public-option.html
I have seen this in some really cutthroat bidding wars for service contracts when oil prices implode.
Company A (who has more assets) will grossly underbid company B to squeeze them out of the market. Eventually, Company B has to cut their prices to find work, and either survives working at a loss longer than Comapny A, or the owner(s) sell the company.
In the end, there are fewer service providers, and the rates go back up with less competition.
The Government has a bottomless war chest (our money, or rather, our indebtedness), and can outlast any private entity, plus, they control regulatory and tax expenses for the private entities.
This is not a level playing field.
This is not competition between two corporate entities, because one entity makes all the rules.