Posted by David Bernstein:
Krugman on Health Care:
http://volokh.com/archives/archive_2009_08_02-2009_08_08.shtml#1249657525
[1]Roger Kimball (via Instapundit) properly mocks [2]Krugman's claim
that angry opposition to the Democrats' health care "reforms" is a
product of racism. But Krugman also includes a logical fallacy, to
wit:
There was a telling incident at a town hall held by Representative
Gene Green, D-Tex. An activist turned to his fellow attendees and
asked if they "oppose any form of socialized or government-run
health care." Nearly all did. Then Representative Green asked how
many of those present were on Medicare. Almost half raised their
hands.
This would only be telling if Green had asked, "how many of you would
prefer if Medicare were not run by the government?" Otherwise, it's
the equivalent of going to a room full of radical libertarians and
asking, "how many of you are opposed to government owning and
operating roads?" Everyone raises his hand. "Okay, how many of you use
the roads?" It's not like if you're of Medicare age, you have some
sort of feasible way of opting out of the government-run health care
system.
Although we don't know the views of the seniors singled out by
Krugman, there are undoubtedly many seniors who want to keep their
Medicare benefits and also oppose further government involvement in
the private part of the health care system. And why not? Currently,
they get almost-free care, and as much of it as they want, with no
rationing, and "wasteful" private insurance helps subsidize the
training of their doctors and medical innovations that will prolong or
improve their lives. Pundits are finally starting to notice something
that was obvious to me from the start: the Democrats' plans are not
just an assault on the private part of the current health care system,
but on Medicare as well. Medicare desperately needs an overhaul, but I
don't see the Democrats expending the huge amount of political capital
it would take to persuade seniors of that. Instead, having defanged
the AARP, they seem to have hoped nobody would notice. But after two
decades of the Democrats sensitizing seniors to the slightest "threat"
to Medicare, the better to get reelected, the Democrats aren't going
to fool politically active seniors so easily.
[Comments open for four hours]
References
1.
http://pajamasmedia.com/rogerkimball/2009/08/07/paul-krugman-and-dorothy-parker/
2. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/07/opinion/07krugman.html?_r=1&ref=opinion
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