What happens when you make something "free" to users?
One of the basic teachings of economics is that for virtually every service or product, cutting the price results in greater demand, and vice-versa.
Offer people something that's free to them (though obviously not free to provide) and demand will skyrocket. Thus when you offer people "free money" if they meet certain criteria, suddenly the number of people claiming to meet the criteria will be far higher than the "experts" predicted.
Thus when Obamacare offered people "free" health care (free of any cost to the users, that is), the experts claimed to be absolutely sure this would "bend the cost curve" and reduce overall costs. But amazingly, demand for the myriad of services soared, and total costs rose, so that roughly 80 percent of the state-operated "health exchanges" have gone bankrupt.
Who could possibly have foreseen that, eh?
We've seen so many demonstrations of this principle that you'd think everyone in the U.S. would acknowledge its truth. But Democrat politicians don't seem to agree.
So here's an example I hadn't heard before: Guy moves to Oregon. One of his new neighbors is a nurse at the local hospital, and tells the guy that by state law, ambulance rides and ER visits are free to the user. The nurse tells the guy that some people call an ambulance for an insignificant complaint, ride into town and then walk from the few blocks from the hospital to Walmart to do their shopping.
The nurse also said their emergency room gets twice as many patients as those in cities of the same size but in other states. In other words, people were using the ER instead of going to a doctor for non-emergency conditions...because the politicians in Democrat-ruled Oregon had decreed that ER visits were "free."
Significantly, the nurse seemed OK with both laws since, as he put it, the cost was paid by ‘those who pay taxes.’
For political newbies, the capital of Oregon is Portland, run by a Democrat mayor. When the communist thugs of "Antifa" surrounded an ICE office and blocked access both directions, the clever, clever mayor ordered his city cops to do...nothing. Cuz he's a Democrat pol, and they love Antifa--because the thugs only riot against Republicans. Hell of a deal, eh?
Offer people something that's free to them (though obviously not free to provide) and demand will skyrocket. Thus when you offer people "free money" if they meet certain criteria, suddenly the number of people claiming to meet the criteria will be far higher than the "experts" predicted.
Thus when Obamacare offered people "free" health care (free of any cost to the users, that is), the experts claimed to be absolutely sure this would "bend the cost curve" and reduce overall costs. But amazingly, demand for the myriad of services soared, and total costs rose, so that roughly 80 percent of the state-operated "health exchanges" have gone bankrupt.
Who could possibly have foreseen that, eh?
We've seen so many demonstrations of this principle that you'd think everyone in the U.S. would acknowledge its truth. But Democrat politicians don't seem to agree.
So here's an example I hadn't heard before: Guy moves to Oregon. One of his new neighbors is a nurse at the local hospital, and tells the guy that by state law, ambulance rides and ER visits are free to the user. The nurse tells the guy that some people call an ambulance for an insignificant complaint, ride into town and then walk from the few blocks from the hospital to Walmart to do their shopping.
The nurse also said their emergency room gets twice as many patients as those in cities of the same size but in other states. In other words, people were using the ER instead of going to a doctor for non-emergency conditions...because the politicians in Democrat-ruled Oregon had decreed that ER visits were "free."
Significantly, the nurse seemed OK with both laws since, as he put it, the cost was paid by ‘those who pay taxes.’
For political newbies, the capital of Oregon is Portland, run by a Democrat mayor. When the communist thugs of "Antifa" surrounded an ICE office and blocked access both directions, the clever, clever mayor ordered his city cops to do...nothing. Cuz he's a Democrat pol, and they love Antifa--because the thugs only riot against Republicans. Hell of a deal, eh?
posted by SF at
3:43 PM
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