And food.
My topics today are health care and food. See, I think we need both for a good quality of life. I know, call me crazy, but I put food above the right to cable TV and I put health care above the right to low cost gasoline. Can I get a "well, duh"?
Okay, my point...
My point is, food, and health care especially, are barely affordable. I think these necessities are important enough that we need to find a way for most Americans to afford them. The problem I run into is, I don't trust a socialist system. So what are the alternatives?
First off, the first moment you begin to talk about this subject, people panic and say, "no, no, don't mess with the current system. Remember you get what you pay for. If we limit how much a doctor can charge, we don't get good doctors." Okay, I have to disagree. How can I disagree? By example, of course. Police and Firefighters are not a "free market" system, but I feel we have very good police officers and excellent firefighters.
Can you imagine if we ran our fire fighters the way we run our health system? Call 911 and tell the operator your house is on fire, and you get, "Your FMO (Fire Mediation Offer) allows you to have a fire in your living room, but we cannot cover a fire in the bathroom. If your fire is in the kitchen, please fill out a form explaining what kind of spices you were using."
No one says we should privatize our firefighters. No one says, "Hey, you get what you pay for", because firefighters are dedicated to helping people. They aren't in it for the money (which is good, since we don't pay our firefighters as much as we pay our doctors).
So, I don't think it's automatically a bad idea to regulate our health care system. But, I can think of a better idea, so, dear readers, don't start panicing.
Here's my idea.
- Have the government support health care and food with government script. For those who make $40,000 or less a year, the government can pay $400 a month for basic (and yes, it would be basic) health insurance. People would have the option to add to that amount to get better health care, but at least the basics would be covered.
- Same with food. For those making less than $40,000 a year, the government would pay $400 a month for a family of four. This would cover basic food and groceries. Families could add to that for extras.
- This would be superiour to the current system by the affect on the market. The current system pays farmers not to grow certain amounts. If a farmer is paid $20,000 not to grow some soybeans, that $20,000 will enter the economy through the farmer. If instead, the $20,000 is given to consumers, the money will pass from consumer to grocery store to distributer and finally to farmer.
- Or you could supplement the farmer. Not pay him/her not to grow food, but match the price of food. If a bushel of corn goes for $5.00, the government would add $5.00 to that bushel for the farmer. So the farmer makes $10.00 per bushel and, therefore, is willing to grow the corn. Retailers don't have to pay more and will, therefore, purchase the corn. And the farmer isn't tempted not to grow the food. So more food is available without affecting the price as much.
But best would be a compliment of both together. The more a family makes, the less they would receive from the government. Because someone making $100,000 a year should be able to afford basic healthcare and food without assistance. Someone making $25,000 should be able to expect help. Why, you ask? Why should people who don't make as much expect supplemental help? Well...
People who work cheap keep the economy going. Those who are rich are able to make money by employing people who don't make much. The rich are reliant on people who will work cheap, therefore, the rich have an obligation to help those who are poor. Why? Because without those who are poor and willing to work cheap, the rich could not have gotten rich. Since their fortunes are being made on the backs of those willing to work, thier fortunes need to be taxes heavily to support those who support the building of that fortune.
Just an idea.
