Re: Immortal jelly fish

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Feb 20, 2025, 10:40 PM

There might be something to the eat right and walk a bit idea. As you say, a ton of health can be gained via free means.

Different subject, but somewhat related. There is a lot of angst and political posturing about the cost of health care, what Medicare can keep paying for, same with Medicaid, whether health care is a right, etc. Fine. But in terms of how to deliver care to those who can afford it the least, it seems that the vast majority of benefit is in the primary care, vaccines and antibiotics. And those are relatively cheap. Hold that thought.

Among the programs we all would agree are warranted, EBT might be one of the least efficient. Cards are sold on the black market, the goods are delivered at retail prices, and the recipients of them tend to be among the least healthy. As far back as the 80's, several think tanks concluded that if the govt bought staples from farmers, put them in grocery store displays to be given away free (rent the space), after accounting for a large misuse (people getting the govt stuff when they didnt need to), more food would go to more people at way less cost than the EBT program. IE, like health, 80% of the benefit is in the first 20% of the almost free effort. So, directly give away that 20%. Walk up and take the staples you need. Steak, you buy.

Health care seems to have that same 80/20 rule. An annual checkup, vaccines, sick visits and antibiotics are cheap, amd those things do 80% of the lifting. Where the line is, I dont know, and we dont like drawing those lines, but in a world of scarcity, something like 'amoxicillin yes, cancer treatment no' seems a reasonable approach to what is free. Seems we could find a way to give away that 20% without building and paying for the massive govt involvement we now have.

The political argument then comes in telling a young family they cant get free leukemia treatment. I get it. Is all health care a right in a world where the mortality rate is 100%? That is a different subject. I'm just thinking about how to live in the 80/20 world without going broke.

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I think we can all agree that a thing that does not exist cannot be given. A farmer with 5 acres cannot feed all the poor in town. If he has a barn with a couple year's worth stored, and someone takes it to feed the poor, all that is accomplished is delaying "broke" for a year or so.

That is where we almost are. With our current level of debt, and with the interest on that debt growing faster than we can pay it, we are looking broke in the face, and all the philosophizing about right to food and medicine will prove to be the empty words that they are.

It seems that there are three things we have to manage: (1) if someone has to buy something for you, that thing is not a right: (2) compassion never fed anyone: (3) compassion should be a motivating force. The only way to reconcile all three is some acknowledgement of what is reasonably available, and then how to prioritize who gets the scarce resources, because there will never be enough. We have ignored this into near bankruptcy.

If that is controversial, we just havent hit reality yet. It'll get here.

Immortal jelly fish