Rand on Corporate Welfare and the Medical Industry
by Rand Fanshier, Candidate Colorado HD13, October 29, 2004
Capitalism, in Adam Smith's "invisible hand" sense of the word, has for a long time been very much subverted by corporate welfare coming from the government.
Most of the "evils" people blame corporations for, could not have happened except for collusion between government and successful industry lobbyists. So I would say that capitalism is what happens UNTIL government begins to get involved. Then it turns into fascism and eventually all 'private' business winds up getting paid by the government, fulfilling government contracts.
The health industry is an excellent case in point. In the 1960's an average worker could pay for a hospital stay with a few days wages. In 1980 you could go to the emergency room and get some stitches and treatment for concussion and walk out writing a check for $350 to cover the entire bill. But now with the government programs including Medicare, Medicaid, subsidized HMOs and other handouts, the average worker cannot afford a trip to the hospital at all; health insurance costs more than food on a monthly basis; total health care spending is $5,000-$6,000 per person ($1.6 trillion) annually in the U.S. and the government pays HALF of that ($800 billion) directly to the health care providers. Yet at the same time every health care worker: Doctors, Nurses, Techs, etc are making LESS money than they did in 1968, inflation considered.
Essentially, the services supplied by the government are paid, not so much by our taxes which only pay the debt burden, but by lowering the value of our currency. See here for a discussion of the Federal Reserve system, the means by which everyone who earns, saves and uses dollar bills (Federal Reserve Bank Notes, i.e.: loan markers) is robbed of the fruits of their labor. Below is a chart showing M3, or the money supply, versus population so you understand why, in a nation which has increased its productivity by twenty times, mothers also now have to work just in order to cover a family's tax bill, whereas in the 1960's a man alone could easily provide for his family with an average job.
Wait a minute...if productivity has gone through the roof as we've been told on TV and the newspapers, multiplying by 20 times because of factory automation, computers, better cars, high-tech farms, and plastics, why is everyone still just scraping by just to make ends meet? There is a reason, and the reason is that the government (including those who control it) has been taxing our extra productivity by devaluing our savings and inflating how much we pay for the goods and services we buy. This isn't really done on purpose to rob people, but it's a side-effect caused by a few who know how to and have been using the system to their advantage since 1913.
Ah, but you say-- what about real estate? My home has multiplied in value over the last decade(s)! Well, let's take a good look at that. True, those who own a home are seeing appreciating dollar value. But not as fast as the money supply is increasing. And, when you cash out and sell your home, chances are the buyer does not have nearly the equity you have; instead young buyers will have to take out a 30-year mortgage and wind up paying interest for the rest of their lives to finance the "increased cost" of which only you have been fortunate enough to benefit. They will work hard all their lives and have no savings to fall back on.
There is much more to this story, as the structural problem we have with our government and our money system has been entrenched and hiding for almost a hundred years and is growing. Do you want to be part of the solution, or do you want to see how long we can go before the problem comes home (to your home) to roost? Vote for me, and I will expose this problem, and its solution, and get the media spreading the word on what's to be done so we can get the America, Colorado and our families back on track!
The solution, by the way, is less government, more sense. Let's end the habit of subsidizing and regulating industries (which only assists the bad ones), and let's STOP borrowing money to pay for schemes brought to the U.S. Congress and the Colorado State Assembly by lobbyists with an agenda.
Cheers,
Rand
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Updated: Friday, October 29, 2004 
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