I was more asking whether or not the quality and advancement of the healthcare in the United States justifies what it costs. Are we getting what we pay for?
Another way to phrase it: if we trade market forces for universal access, will the rate of healthcare innovation slow down?
no, because policies governing access to health care should not share a lot of commonalities with R&D efforts in medical science and technology. The former should be public, while the latter should be commercially driven as much as possible. In our country, the former is predominantly privatized, while the latter is public funded. As a result, we have shown relatively slow progress in R&D while doling out sub-standard health care.
p.s. I really like this statement - "You start to understand how an economy works when you realize Karl Marx and Adam Smith were hitting on the same idea". It is accurate in that both men seeked a more efficient economic system - a far cry from what we have today. What we should have is a combination of both ideas - merging public guarantee of basic rights with the concept of private property.
The former should be public, while the latter should be commercially driven as much as possible.
I think there's a recipe for consensus building here. Granted that you'll never be able to pay for universal health care by eliminating public research grants, but there's got to be some lobby money coming from medical R&D for policies like this.
As for Marx and Smith, the statement is not just about efficiency, but also oppression. Forceful intervention into an economy is oppressive and inefficient. Impoverished workers operating in unsafe conditions are both oppressed and unproductive. These are obviously blanket statements that require nuance for specific situations, but that's basically what I was getting at.
I'd personally like to see an environment where initial risk is taken on by the capitalist, and as a venture matures, ownership gradually passes to labor. When you think about it, it's not too far off from what we have now with the Seed -> VC -> IPO cycle.
Hmm that is also an interesting and truthful way of looking at that statement. I echo your sentiment for businesses to be more employee centered. We have to buck the trend for making profit margin the absolute bottom line.
Another way to phrase it: if we trade market forces for universal access, will the rate of healthcare innovation slow down?