I’ve been on vacation this past week and enjoyed some interesting discussions during that time. One on inflation: it occurs strictly speaking from excessive demand or inadequate supply, push-pull inflation. With one of our friends graduating from Notre Dame this weekend it struck me that inflation in education is excessive, that is way out of line with general inflation.
Gordon Wadsworth’s article, Sky Rocketing College Costs, presents this data which is about a year old but conveys the messarg well:
Another area of significant above average inflation is medical care. John Commins post, Costs of Medical Care Outstrips Inflation, pegs hospital service inflation in the last 12 months at 8.6% almost quadruple the 2.3% increase in the overall CPI. Physicians services was up 3.2% and prescription drugs up 4.9% for comparable periods.
I submit that the major reason for the off the chart inflation in each of these areas is the government involvement in each. There is not a true market in either. If there were price increases would be more in line with general inflation.
The leftist progressives from Dewey on have mandated public education which has evolved to public employee unions, outrageous non-market compensation, and an uneducated public.
The leftist progressives from Roosevelt on have pushed socialized medicine subsidized with tax policy and out of control Medicare/Medicaid bureaucracies. Obamacare is the final nail in this coffin.
How have we allowed ourselves to get to this inflated entitlement oriented society? While I’m hesitant to use comments from foreign nationals, this one by Peter Lakatos from Hungary to Mark Toomey sadly seems to get to the heart of the matter:
“The danger to America is not Barack Obama but a citizenry capable of entrusting a man like him with the Presidency. It will be far easier to limit and undo the follies of an Obama presidency than to restore the necessary common sense and good judgment to a depraved electorate willing to have such a man for their president.”
“The problem is much deeper and far more serious than Mr. Obama, who is a mere symptom of what ails America . Blaming the prince of the fools should not blind anyone to the vast confederacy of fools that made him their prince. The Republic can survive a Barack Obama, who is, after all, merely a fool. It is less likely to survive a multitude of fools such as those who made him their president.”
Now back to education. For all its inflated costs how good is it? Would it be better if government were completely out of it? Would our society have more common sense? And, would that society be foolish enough to elect another Obama?
For the sake of our grandchildren’s future we need to get the monster government on a starvation diet and get it out of our lives!