Uni Health Care

[Tiberius]

Adrian/dry land fish....would you care to argue your differing positions ( as Libertarians ) on this issue?

I'm the kind of Libertarian who believes in the values of life, liberty, and prosperity, and build up a constitution / way of government around them. Whilst I'm still all for self-government and minimal government, I understand that there are some aspects of government that need to exist. In Libertarian terms, I'm a "minarchist". dry land fish comes across as more of an anarchist, believing that all public services should be privatized.

The problems with a private system is that the poorer classes that cannot afford the prices will lose out. This goes against the first value of the Libertarian system, and so the government has a duty to provide healthcare options for everyone. With a flat-rate tax, everyone pays the same proportionate amount of their earnings, and is provided with the same service.

I think dry land fish's idea of having an "opt-in" system is completely the opposite of having a minimal government. Firstly, it would require more paperwork as the amount people "opt in" to would have to be calculated from the number of people wishing to pay it. This would require people to first register their interest in applying so that the tax could be calculated, and then refactor that again if people join/leave the program when given the final amount.

Secondly, the budget would be incredibly variable. If 100,000 people sign up for the opt-in scheme one year, there is nothing to say that they will all sign up for it the next. In fact if only half sign up the next year, a major shift in the budget has to take place, and this could cause loss of a lot of jobs. With everyone paying the tax from the start, you have a set number to work with, out of which you can calculate a more accurate and stable budget.

Adrian, you asked me lots of questions about Socialism in another thread, so I'd like to pose you a few.
How would a Libertarian government tackle poverty, unemployment, the pensions timebomb and the resulting need for care for an increasingly old population, inequality i.e. the ever widening gap between the rich and the poor, global warming?
Just a few things to consider.

How would Libertarians tackle poverty and unemployment? We would end welfare payouts to families who have the ability to work, and use the money saved to create more jobs for those people. Obviously we are not going to do this overnight; it will be a slow process. We aren't just going to take welfare away and leave people stranded. We would also privatize education and encourage people to gain skills at universities in order to achieve better jobs.

As for pensions, we believe that the government should have a system in place to pay pensions, but people should be free to place their money in private retirement accounts; investing it in low/medium/high risk interests if they wish.

The elderly will be afforded free healthcare, and the privatization of parts of the healthcare industry would lead to "better deals" for old people.

As for the gap between the rich and the poor, we would encourage more jobs for the working class as already stipulated above. Libertarianism employs a right-wing economic system, so we aren't socialists who want everyone to earn the same...or earn within a smaller wage bracket.

For global warming, we would encourage the use of renewable energy sources, and make the government accountable for pollution they cause.