I was talking with a co-worker about eliminating pennies. She was against it because “they would just round the price up” and use it as an opportunity to raise prices. Then she was concerned about the machines that calculate the price of meat, and how they would then have to round. I explained to her that they are already rounding to the penny, so rounding to the nickel would be no problem.
The the epiphany hit me. This is the same sort of reasoning that people apply to changes to health care. The vague feeling that “they” will cheat you and the resistance to trying anything new.
Like UHC, eliminating small coins has worked successfully in Europe, but these kind of people are incapable of looking at any other countries for new ideas. It’s a combination of paranoia, fear of change, and deliberate stupidity.
(Note that I have avoided making any puns like “nickels, change you can believe in”.)
Senators filibustered the civil rights act in the 60s for 40 days. Back then some people were saying integration would destroy society. Didn’t happen.
Back when we were trying to abolish child labor, a senate hearing was held. A representative of industry said abolishing (or limiting) child labor would lead to the mills stopping and society grinding to a halt. Didn’t happen when it was abolished in 1937.
Reagan thought medicare would usher in an age of communist dictatorship. Its now over 40 years later and it hasn’t happened.
These people have always said the sky is falling at even the slightest hint of egalitarianism. And they’ve always been wrong. No reason to think differently this time.
You can’t reason with them, negotiate with them or convince them. You can only steam roll the country past them and then sit back and chuckle when their chicken little paranoid fantasies come to nothing.
Now, I would had to admit that I would like to see all those senators that are in the pockets of the insurance and medical companies show to all the people that they would rather fight for the freedom of Insurers to limit the health care choices of Americans.
If they filibuster, I would expect to see ads like this one directed to all the rotten politicians that are still attempting to prevent a public option:
Assuming that the customer will react poorly to price increases in general, they might decide to combine two price increases into one to reduce the fallout. In other words, “In for a penny, in for a pound”.
Who needs to rely on “vague feelings” when you can just point to “their” own proposed legislation that would adversely affect you, either overtly with a 35% excise tax or covertly by forcing the insurer to ignore vital information that would allow them to charge you a price that accurately reflects the cost of providing your product.
I was at a bbq this weekend where the host actually started talking about how integration had ruined schools here in Indiana. My wife and I just exchange wide-eyed glances when stuff like this happens and laugh about it later when we sneak around at night planting tiny seeds of socialism throughout the neighbourhood.
