Ending government waste and corruption:
The US government has a lot to learn from the private sector. Government bureaucracies are the most inefficient organizations in the entire world. Just consider that the US government cannot account for billions of dollars spent on the Iraq war. How on earth do a group of accountants overlook billions of dollars? Corrupt companies and rogue governments have many similarities. There is greed and laziness involved. Therefore, companies and governmental organizations should be held to the same standard.
Public employers are inefficient because they do not have competition breathing down their necks. Accountability is low in public sectors because there is less of a chance of a coddled public employee getting fired. It is no surprise that government bureaucracies are inefficient and wasteful in the use of money.
Centralized planning a public activities causes a loss of oversight of what is really going on in the trenches. On the other hand, nimble modern private companies know when an employee sneezes. The US government should follow this example.
Many would argue that public bureaucracies should be replaced by the private sector. Then once these private companies takeover activities they can be audited by a watchdog group. So the ultimate answer may not lie in making public bureaucracies more accountable but in taking the initiative to close them down and replace them with nimble businesses in the private sector.
Socialized medicine would be a disaster:
Socialized medicine is not all its cracked up to be. If you talk to some people from Canada they will tell you that they do have access to medical care but the quality medical care is lower than that of the US. Any form of socialism is doomed to lower quality whether it be “free” medicine, housing, or an inefficient public education system.
People who want something for nothing will be the first to want socialized medicine. However, there is no such thing as a free lunch. People who want something for nothing will ultimately end up with nothing. Centralized planning of health services is by its nature corrupt and inefficient. Market forces should determine the health care process and patients should bear the costs and responsibilities of choosing the proper healthcare provider, not a government bureaucrat.
Human nature must be taken into consideration when discussing these policies. If people are offered “free” health care they may be less likely to take care of themselves. This means alcoholics will continue their alcoholism, obese people will continue their overeating, and smokers will continue their smoking. However when people know that they bear the costs alone for their health conditions they’re more likely to take better care of themselves.
Socialized medicine will never take off in the United States because America is not a socialist country. Furthermore, most hard-working law-abiding citizens do not want to have to bear the costs for those who do not work hard and who do not take care of their physical health. In conclusion, socialized medicine is not the right answer to improving health care services in modern industrialized economies.
