The New Ideas Blog

It is easy to imagine that we can do the right thing, and that we can know what the right thing to do is, but is it so? We are so influenced by desires for things and what we want to be true that it colors everything we see if we allow our minds their usual ways. Let’s look at an example.

Suppose a politician long ago said “vote for me and I’ll force future generations to pay for you to quit working and relax.” People vote for him, and the “social security program” is created. To make it look fair people pay into the plan as though it is a retirement fund. But that’s for appearances only, since (more…)

I recently wrote a page about one of the ways to make a government health care plan work better. That doesn’t mean that I am in favor of such a system, but if we are going to have one I hope that we can at least do it in a way that doesn’t result in either bankrupting the country or rationing medical care. My idea was that you have to make people pay for the first thousand dollars of their care annually and pay an ongoing portion thereafter in order to discourage unlimited demand and to keep the medical industry competitive, as well as to make the whole thing affordable for taxpayers. That page is here:

Health Insurance Reform - New Solutions

But in this post I want to suggest some more radical ideas for making the system more affordable for everyone. Specifically, I want to start with this: Stop licensing doctors and other health care professionals. Stop (more…)