Insurance Companies Are Driven By Profit and GREED*!

~or~ "Why America May Be Doomed"

Boortz got a call from a "doctor" the other day, who criticized "these insurance companies" for being "profit-driven." The proper response to someone who believes ANYTHING being profit-driven is somehow bad or even evil, is the following:

Do you have a job?

When they answer in the affirmative, you can then tell them Then YOU are profit-driven! And what's wrong with that?

They will protest, if they have not been down this road before. "I'm not profit-driven!"

Okay, then what would you say to this: Your employer is going to stop giving you paychecks, but you will continue to get your mortgage and bills paid. Your boss will tell you what you can do for recreation. They'll give you recreation vouchers for specific uses. They probably won't like it. Ask them what's the difference between their boss dictating how they spend their money, and the government saying how an insurance agent can spend his money. Sputtering is likely to ensue. If they are an above-average graduate of government schools, it is possible they will muster a response along the lines of:

Because people NEED health insurance! You shouldn't make a profit off things people NEED!

Then you ask them again what's the difference between their boss telling them how they can spend their entertainment vouchers, and the government dictating how someone else can spend their money. This may come around to a statement that they're not telling them how they can spend their money. The point then becomes: if you limit to expenses and overhead, how much an insurer can earn, no profit allowed, they don't have anything left over for going to the movies with their kids. Is THAT "FAAAAAaaaair?"

Now you run into the limitations of government education provided by soft communists: They say "well, no, but. . ." and you get stuck in a loop. Great patience is required to walk someone through the logic of the relative merits of capitalism vs. communism, but it is largely a wasted effort. Ask them if they generally agree with the idea that we should have the government take from people who have more than they need, and give to people who are genuinely needy. These days, unfortunately, you will get an affirmative response. Then you ask them, so, do you agree with the basic premise: "From each according to his ability, to each according to his need?"

You are very likely to get an affirmative response again. Ask them if they know who popularized that phrase. They won't. Tell them it was Karl Marx, a man who had never had a real job, and who had a skin condition known to dispose people with a generally nasty personality. He is also referred to as the Father of Communism. Tell them "So basically you're a communist then."

You are then in for another lengthy round of protest and counterpoint. If you are extremely patient, you may convince someone that they have been harboring communist sentiment. You may get them to agree in theory that capitalism is better. You are extremely unlikely to convince them that they are on the way to adding to the hundred-million-plus people killed by their own communist governments. Plant the seed if you can, and tell them if they want to talk about it some more, they can hit you up at any time. Or redirect them here and they can contact me. I will also make no headway with them, but at least they will stop annoying you with their anti-American sentiments.

*I KNOW this is a potential straw-man! You needn't tell me that. I also know I have heard (and had) this conversation more times than I can count, and this is a stereotype based on experience with the "average American" government-school victim graduate.