I have discovered a beautiful life-nugget of truth: free is bad… cost is good. This concept can take many forms so I’ll address a few here.
For instance, you should (almost) always put a small cost on “free” services to people. There are very few exceptions to this, and the benefits and wisdom are more than I could write about in 20 paragraphs. If somebody wants something… concoct a small, token task or cost for them in order to set into motion your helping them. This will more rightly measure how much they really appreciate and/or need your time and effort.
I’ve had people at work make requests from me that will keep me busy for three weeks… but when I ask them to send me a carefully worded email detailing their request from me (an email which would take them 15 minutes to write) I never hear from them again!? A mere 15 minute email would send me into a 120-hour work-a-thon for them but they don’t see it as worth their 15 minutes. Surely… if it was not worth their 15 minutes it was MOST CERTAINLY not worth my 3 weeks!
It’s all about the feedback mechanisms. It’s all about the balance of getting and giving. It’s all about not buying the cow when you get the milk for free.
I firmly believe that students take their education more seriously when they are paying a share of it. I firmly believe that teenagers are more consciencious about frivolous trips with the folks’ car when they are paying for the gas. And I think they’d be careful about letting their friends smoke in the car if they knew the car-cleaning cost was coming out of their own wallet. It’s amazing how people are more careful about using services when there is a substantial co-payment for them.
The bottom line is that everything would fall apart without these forms of balance and counter-balance. Whenever something is “free” there is almost always a shift out-of-balance. The reason for the disturbance of our balanced equilibrium is the same reason that I put “free” in quotation marks. Nothing is free. There is always a cost to somebody. When the cost of something is shifted from the consumer of that thing to somebody else you have removed the feedback mechanism that keeps things in balance. This is tremendously bad!
If health care were free I wouldn’t have to be responsible in my behavior or eating habits or exercise regimen. If water was free I could run the sink and hose all day and night. If freedom was free I would never have to get off my fat arse to defend my way of life. If my basic necessities were provided to me free by the government I wouldn’t have to work another day in my life… but others would. Oh yes… others would then have to work not only for themselves and their family, but also to feed me and clothe me and shelter me… and my family. And then they could pay for my parents’ medical bills (including big-dollar medications that we demanded).
The world is full of willing people; some willing to work, the rest willing to let them.
- Robert Frost
Coming soon I’ll follow this up with the next step in the logical progression: Why unequal is fair.
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“If health care were free I wouldn’t have to be responsible in my behavior or eating habits or exercise regimen.”
Uhmm… logical fallacy? Personal health care (as in preventive measures) and the health care industry (as in post-illness care) are two totally different things. You’re right: there are very few exeptions to things that should be free. Health care should be one of them.
Let me put forth a couple of images here:
- European fatass. (Not many of those, are there?)
- American fatass. (with almost 30% of the population considered “obese” — hmmm.)
If your argument (when applied to the health care industry) held any water, then we’d see a lot more European fat-asses, wouldn’t we? I mean, what’s stopping them from eating 2 Big Macs and super sized fries over at “Chez McDonald’s”? Here’s what’s stopping them: because of free health care, the government now has stricter rules about what companies can pass off as food. As such, meat saturated with pesticides and antibiotics isn’t found on the European markets. Additionally, food portions tend to be smaller in restaurants, which is one of the primary sources of excess calories in the American market. There are also concerted efforts there to ensure that people exercise — since the gov’t and people now both have a positive financial bottom line associated with personal care, as opposed to the negative bottom line faced by most Americans with health club fees — as well as efforts to ensure that people eat better, both by government regulation of the food industry and social betterment programs.
There is a cost associated with bad health habits: it’s a shorter lifespan and a miserable life (which, I suppose would be rewarded by a shorter lifespan). Free health care does not lead to bad health habits. While it may lead to increased cases of people asking for more medication, it is proven that people won’t suddenly become garbage-eating monsters. In fact, the opposite is true.
The good associated with “free” health care (paid for by tax payers — which, by the way, you’re already paying for) outweighs the bad in numerous ways, such as a longer, healthier lifespan for the general population (as has been proven over and over and over and over and over…). Additionally, the crony system currently in place — which rewards companies for keeping people chronically sick instead of giving them a cure — could be eliminated if the world’s largest economy suddenly switched from feeding pharma companies and health provider bureaucracy to a system in which doctors call the shots, and not business managers with no medical experience.
Overall, I highly agree: people will never appreciate something when its free. That’s why freedom isn’t free, why success is something you have to fight for, and why products and services should cost money. However, being in a hospital because you’re sick is hardly “free” — you’ve paid with your health to be there, and that’s a very high price to pay. The only difference between that system and what we have now is that under that system people who are legitimately sick and who cannot afford health care under the current system could get the care they need. (Besides, like gigabit Internet, at over 1.4 trillion per year, we’ve already paid for that system. We just haven’t gotten it.)
Interesting blog. I love how you walk through the whole picture. That explains how many end up on welfare and other “free” government services. My question is why do it. I mean really do people have no self-respect so the next easiest thing is to live off of other people. Doesn’t that ever get tiring. I mean we as humans were made for work. It’s in our core being to mold, make, harvest fruits of labor. So why let yourself be a bum? I know a lot of people who live off of the government or thier parents (22+ years old). I just don’t understand the motivation to stay still.
Personally, I would just become so bored. I would have to do something, anything. And, what in the world do they do all day that makes thier life worth living.
Now that I have said all that, a little disclaimer. I am in no way knocking those who are single parents raising kids and thier income just doesn’t cover it so thier supplementing with welfare and other government services or such. I am oly saying that if your perfectly or even somewhat capable of work. What makes them stay on the couch like a sloth, slacker, bumm, (insert your own word or phrase).
These type of people annoy me.
Waraxe,
If they can’t send you the memo, I wouldn’t do the work either.
gnorb :: I understand what you’re saying. I didn’t go into detail about not having to stay healthy… but I understand that there are benefits to staying healthy beyond not having to pay doctor copays. But, the most abuse of a system will come when there is no feedback in place to provide an incentive for people to stay healthy… or you can read that as stay out of the ER. If uninsured illegal aliens can walk into any ER in the country, no questions asked, and get their headache checked out then the system has failed. Even if the person is a citizen, there needs to be a monetary hit somewhere.
I agree that HMOs sucks at making medical decisions… but letting doctors call the shots without checks and balances will only result in them piling up monstrously high bills for the patient (meaning for the taxpayer who’s subsidizing this little dance) because then the doctor has just covered their behind the best they can. To avoid malpractice multiples of every test will be run for every patient. Not cool. Sooo… it comes back to the stupid lawyers (doesn’t it always?).
Also, people should be able to pay for a better doctor if they wish… or just pay for a better care facility or whatever. This happens in socialized health countries on its own… but because everyone is paying taxes for health care already usually only the really wealthy can afford to pay for super doctors on TOP of what they’ve already shelled out to Big Brother.
Narbhflaith :: You bring up a good point. The single mother whose husband left them for the paperboy, and is now having to rais the triplets on her own with a part-time job, is definitely an exception and these types of situations should be helped in some fashion.
What I’m not for (and you’d agree) is to just help whoever says they need help without putting a discerning eye on things.
great, steve..
“Why unequal is fair.?”
in that situation, i mind that if someone need seriosly any work, any scraft anything from us,
..may be saying “thank you” is enough, is fair.
not yet equal between 3week and 15minute
but when they go away after got (without greeting)
may they just stolen
i mind, they rob, they are pluder.
it’s not fair.
free is not ‘absolutly’ “free”
except, we are both happy, will be responded or never.
Maybe the fault is not the free price tag, but the deficiency of the parents for failing to instill a healthy respect for value (and well, everything) in their children.
x2nie :: I think your translator isn’t working up to its potential. Was it free?
Just kidding… sorta… But I’m totally with you on “but when they go away after got (without greeting) may they just stolen”. I agree! We are both happy! 
Heather :: Ah, but despite parents’ best efforts to instill a healthy appreciation for things… nothing works like a good ‘ole “theory to practice”. Our coworkers have a bunch of these stories.
Try to teach the kid that [fill in the blank] cost money… kid nods head then continues wasteful behavior. Take partial cost of [fill in the blank] out of kid’s weekly allowance… watch kid magically transform into a savvy resource manager. Wow, it’s a miracle!