Thursday, August 19, 2004
The difference between zero-price and free health care
[Walter E. Williams, "Economics 101," The Cato Institute, 18 August 2004.]
To those under the impression that society can confer a free good upon its members, George Mason economist Walter Williams has a quick lesson: there is no such thing. This is a particularly valuable point to inject into the discussion of public policy in health care:
Economic ignorance allows us to fall easy prey to political charlatans and demagogues, so how about a little Economics 101?
How many times have we heard "free tuition," "free health care," and free you-name-it? If a particular good or service is truly free, we can have as much of it as we want without the sacrifice of other goods or services.
Take a "free" library; is it really free? The answer is no. Had the library not been built, that $50 million could have purchased something else. That something else sacrificed is the cost of the library. While users of the library might pay a zero price, zero price and free are not one and the same. So when politicians talk about providing something free, ask them to identify the beneficent Santa Claus or tooth fairy.
We don't give second thought to the many wonderful things others do for us. Detroit assembly-line workers get up at the crack of dawn to produce the car you enjoy. Farm workers toil in the blazing sun gathering grapes for our wine. Snowplow drivers brave blizzards just so we can have access to our roads.
Do you think these people make these personal sacrifices because they care about us? My bet is they don't give a hoot. Instead, they along with their bosses do these wonderful things for us because they want more for themselves.
People in the education and political establishments pretend they're not motivated by such "callous" motives as greed and profits. These people "care" about us, but from which areas of our lives do we derive the greatest pleasures and have the fewest complaints, and from which areas do we have the greatest headaches and complaints? We tend to have high satisfaction with goods and services like computers, cell phones, movies, clothing and supermarkets. These are areas where the motivations are greed and profits. Our greatest dissatisfaction is in areas of caring and no profit motive such as public education, postal services and politics. Give me greed and profits, and you can keep the caring.
Again, when politicians come to us pretending they're Santa Clauses or tooth fairies delivering benefits only, we should ask what's the cost; who's going to pay and why.
[Walter E. Williams, "Economics 101," The Cato Institute, 18 August 2004.]
To those under the impression that society can confer a free good upon its members, George Mason economist Walter Williams has a quick lesson: there is no such thing. This is a particularly valuable point to inject into the discussion of public policy in health care:
Economic ignorance allows us to fall easy prey to political charlatans and demagogues, so how about a little Economics 101?
How many times have we heard "free tuition," "free health care," and free you-name-it? If a particular good or service is truly free, we can have as much of it as we want without the sacrifice of other goods or services.
Take a "free" library; is it really free? The answer is no. Had the library not been built, that $50 million could have purchased something else. That something else sacrificed is the cost of the library. While users of the library might pay a zero price, zero price and free are not one and the same. So when politicians talk about providing something free, ask them to identify the beneficent Santa Claus or tooth fairy.
We don't give second thought to the many wonderful things others do for us. Detroit assembly-line workers get up at the crack of dawn to produce the car you enjoy. Farm workers toil in the blazing sun gathering grapes for our wine. Snowplow drivers brave blizzards just so we can have access to our roads.
Do you think these people make these personal sacrifices because they care about us? My bet is they don't give a hoot. Instead, they along with their bosses do these wonderful things for us because they want more for themselves.
People in the education and political establishments pretend they're not motivated by such "callous" motives as greed and profits. These people "care" about us, but from which areas of our lives do we derive the greatest pleasures and have the fewest complaints, and from which areas do we have the greatest headaches and complaints? We tend to have high satisfaction with goods and services like computers, cell phones, movies, clothing and supermarkets. These are areas where the motivations are greed and profits. Our greatest dissatisfaction is in areas of caring and no profit motive such as public education, postal services and politics. Give me greed and profits, and you can keep the caring.
Again, when politicians come to us pretending they're Santa Clauses or tooth fairies delivering benefits only, we should ask what's the cost; who's going to pay and why.
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