--- In [email protected], "shempmcgurk" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > --- In [email protected], "do.rflex" <do.rflex@> wrote: > > > [snip] > > > > > Capitalism is indeed the most successful economic model yet developed, > > and the avarice that lies at its core among the most powerful > > motivators known. But the system is designed to make private money, > > not public good. > > [snip] > > The first sentence of what you write above, do.rflex, is the best thing > you've ever written...indeed, I think it should be in a book of quotes. > > The second sentence, however, is slightly flawed and inaccurate. > > Yes, the system makes for its sellers of goods and services "private > money", as you say and is NOT designed to create any public good. > However, as a by-product of this totally selfish-motivated system, I > suggest to you that the public good is best served. > > You and others have observed that this may be true in some sectors of > the economy but it is not happening in the health sector. And my > observation would be: there isn't a true free market in the health > sector; once there was, then we could judge it accordingly. There is > TOO MUCH government control that in the health sector that I would > suggest to you that its faults are the result of the socialized aspect, > not the capitalist aspect.
McDonald's and Exxon-Mobil exist for exactly the same purpose. Yes, one of them sells billions of hamburgers, while the other pumps billions of barrels of oil, but grease is not the common interest they share. It's money. McDonald's Corporation exists to make money, not McRibs. If the corporation thinks it can make more money by making high quality burgers at a high price, it will do that. If it can make more money by making low quality burgers at a low price, it will do that. And if they can get away with making low quality burgers at a high price, they will do that -- with great joy. No matter what corporate motto is stamped on the side of products or what words hang on the boardroom wall, corporations are simply money machines. That's true of McDonald's or Exxon-Mobil. It's also true of Aetna, and HealthSouth, and Cigna, and Kaiser, and the other private health insurers. They exist to make money. If they can make money by providing health services, they will do so. If they can make more money by denying services, then they will do that. They will provide exactly as much care as maximizes their profits. And not a penny more. The public good can NOT reliably depend on the greed of capitalism. Its motivation is NOT altruistic and its NOT designed with the common good in mind at all.
