So a very common critique of free markets, that is repeated ad nauseam here by leftist visitors to this sub, is that the free market can't handle healthcare, that it would only deliver quality healthcare to the rich. When asked why, they will say it's because companies are too greedy or something.

Aside from the fact that no country, including the US has a pure free market healthcare system, let's concede this point for the sake of the argument. How come free markets can't deliver in healthcare while they can in so many other sectors?

Well, there are two things that determine the price of goods and services: supply and demand. Demand for healthcare is inelastic, which doesn't help, but demand is inelastic for food, internet, transportation, clothes, etc. too, yet those things are much cheaper. So the ultimate reason healthcare is expensive is because of a lack of supply, specifically labor.

Labor costs are what make healthcare expensive. Doctors, especially in the US, earn very high wages, because they are scarce. Nurses are scarce due to labor shortages as well and even though they don't earn as much their quantity still add up to labor costs. Add to this all the other administrators and workers in the healthcare sector, combined with the Baumol effect and the fact that aging societies and increased wealth raise the demand for healthcare, and you end up in a situation where total healthcare costs are near 15% of GDP, which is insanely high.

This is not to say inefficient government policies don't make healthcare more expensive than it needs to be, they do, however I understand the argument that currently competition won't make healthcare affordable to the poor. It's a good thing then that the free market has come up with an alternative solution to this problem: artificial intelligence. Private companies like OpenAI and Google are investing billions in AI and commercializing them for profit. AI robots have the potential to replace doctors and nurses, and when they inevitably do, labor costs, and with it total healthcare costs, will vastly decrease. This would make free market competitive healthcare viable like in many other sectors now. People could start hospitals like they start restaurants or stores. It will be possible to get all the care you need without government subsidies or meddling. We will also finally stop hearing this cliche old leftist argument, and the free market will win.

Would you consider working for free to be the true way of an Austrian economists, and then get paid in tips?

This group seems to rally around minimal government rather then spontaneous order of markets as a driving principle. If we didn't hate government so much and each individual participated in the most limited form of governance possible, would they see themselves more collectively? What drives the rabid Individualism of anarcho-capatalism?

This gentleman’s channel is entertaining overall. Serious when needed. Funny as heck when it’s deserved.

This is his general analysis of Milei thus far.

https://youtu.be/wLq02MpjZQc?si=Uni7uzuRgzoCv40K

Empricism means learning based in experience. as opposed to reason.

Hume died well before Austrian economics was created but was a huge influence and quoted frequently by Hayek and many others. Hume's work then proceeded to influence Adam Smith to write Wealth of Nations.

Basically the problem is that third parties(government, banks and insurance) are too far removed from the situation to understand the particulars of the circumstance. Human's learn based on experience and act on it in very specific situations. For instance there are estimates that somehwere around 8 to 10 percent of medical claims currently are fraudulent, this is because the insurance company isn't actually there with the patient. A car crash or house fire is different because those are actual one time events that can be documented and pictured.

Mortgage companies and college loans are similair. They are pushed by the government to give loans to individuals based on algorithms, they have no real idea of the stability of ths persons job, intellectual capabilities, what the college classes contain, the line items of the college expenses, the job prospects etc. Bringing third parties into a situation and creating artificial demand never works. Same can be said with K through 12 education which has become more and more administrative not as much emphasis on student teacher relationship.

Hume's predictions on public debt and taxes are also crazy accurate for modern times and he made them in the 1750s. The founding fathers were well aware of Hume's work especially James Madison. For instance, the federalist papers has Hume's language in it and explain how humans are in factions at conflict with one another and through self-interest of commerce can we begin to get along and create order.

Adam smith had similair views explaining that the statesman doesnt know what product to bring to market as well as the farmer himself would. This is a very simple concept people don't seem to grasp.

I’m not well versed in AE, but one thing I’m fairly certain about is that AE touts commodity backed currencies as the only valid form of currency. I’m all about bitcoin, I understand how it works in great detail. What I’m wondering is, how can an inconvertible currency, like bitcoin which is no different than fiat in that matter, mesh with the Austrian school? It seems to be antithetical to the fundamental belief in commodity backed currency. I can’t go to a bank vault and pull out the gold that’s being held in reserves for my bitcoin. I can certainly purchase gold with my bitcoin, just like I can with fiat, but that’s not the same thing.

Anybody have a good answer? I see a lot of AE people tout bitcoin but it’s just as far removed from the gold standard as fiat, it literally only removes government levers from the equation… to a degree, as we all know that the whales control the flow of equity in the ecosystem regardless of its mechanisms, and big government and big business are just getting started in the space. Rest assured, much like the stock market, big players are manipulating price action to extract as much wealth from the lower classes as possible (see spoofing and similar practices). And please I don’t need any explanations on how Bitcoin works. I understand it very well, just want to understand how Bitcoin is validated in the Austrian school when it’s squarely against one of their core tenants of commodity backed currencies.

Is it just me or does it feel like talking to Keynesians is a waste of time because they never have their arguments in good faith?

I came across an interesting discussion about capitalism and it's benefits and weaknesses, and interjected myself into it to share my views.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uHGc_55An18

If we assume that a country directly uses gold as money like at the times before the paper money, how would small prices be paid by gold? For example 1gram of gold is 100 dollar approx. And I want to pay 2 dollars with gold. How these small amounts be paid, 1/50 gram is so small. Thanks.

When you’re going to the emergency room, you cannot weigh your choices and pick the best option. You’re under duress. I’m all about the fee market, but seems to me that some sectors of the economy, like healthcare cannot be regulated by the free market because people are not free to gather information, compare options, and make an informed choice.

How is this supposed to work?

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/argentina-s-javier-milei-has-made-a-horrible-mistake/ar-AA1vMyDS?ocid=socialshare&pc=W069&cvid=063e4b98175b4e8697464aa490ca6b65&ei=52

When Mahatma Gandhi was asked what he thought of Western civilisation he replied that it would be a good idea.

One is tempted to say that a Hayekian free market liberation of Argentina after eternal misrule by the Peronist casta would also be a good idea, but that is not what Javier Milei is actually delivering...

A year after his landslide victory, Milei is still not letting market forces set the peso exchange rate, and it now looks as if his crawling dollar peg will continue into the middle of next year. He has jammed the process of macroeconomic cleansing.

Argentina is now among the most expensive countries in the world, close to Norway on the Big Mac index. It costs almost twice as much to buy a hamburger in Buenos Aires as it does in Tokyo, even though the pampas are full of cattle, while the rice terraces of Japan are not.

The peso is as overvalued today as it has ever been in Argentine history, or very close. This has suppressed inflation temporarily to a monthly rate of 2.4pc – so has economic contraction – but has in the process strangled the traded sectors of the textile, shoe and toy industries. Car parts, electronics, metallurgy, and heavy manufacturing are the next dominoes.

Ayn Rand

Oh, Ayn, my muse, my beacon of light, Champion of reason, shining so bright! Your words, like daggers, cut through the haze, Lifting the fog of collectivist ways.

Atlas shrugged, and so did I, For the weight of the world, why even try? Selfishness pure, a virtue divine, My life, my rules—yours are not mine.

Who needs to leech when profits soar? Trade me a handshake, I’ll give you no more. The market’s a temple, the dollar my creed, With you as my guide, I find all I need.

Let others wallow in altruist shame, I’ll stake my claim in the egoist game. From Galt’s grand gulch, I’ll make my stand, Forever loyal to you, Ayn Rand.