Burning Down the House

If you want a good idea of what Repub privatization policies lead to, look no farther than the case of the firemen who watched as a house burned because the owner didn't pay the $75 fee. (He forgot). Now think about social security, police, and yes, health care. It just doesn't make sense to privatize some things. But the Repubs are willing to "burn down the house" for the sake of their ideology. The point is that this case is a good metaphor for the key problem with lassiez faire philosophy: people slipping through the cracks. People don't forget to pay their taxes (at least most of us don't), so that is a more reliable way of dealing with absolute necessities like fire and police protection. What if a cop refused to help someone because they didn't pay their "police fee"? My own view is that this is what we do with health care by having private insurance involved in any way. "Oh, you didn't buy policy 1a, you only have 1b, so you don't get treatment." I'm all for using the market as a general framework, but it doesn't always supply us with what we want.