What a Wise Mother Would Wish Her Children to Do For a Living if ObamaCare Passes

Steven Horwitz

No, not plastics.

It used to be that the stereotypical mother wanted her children to become doctors.  If ObamaCare passes, she should want them to become medical lobbyists instead.  If this monstrosity goes through, the lobbyists and rent-seekers will have decades of highly-paid employment in front of them.  Plus, lobbyists can't be sued for malpractice.

I continue to be amazed at my friends on the left who think this bill is some sort of victory for the little guy.  This will be a feast of lobbying and rent-seeking as it will be tinkered with for years if it passes.  Who wins at that game?  Not you and me, but Big Insurance, Big Pharma, and Big Corporations in general, who can absorb the costs and engage in the lobbying.  It will kill small businesses and it will impoverish and worsen the medical care of the middle class, as well as the poor.

For all the talk on the left of being opposed to corporate power, they just don't seem to get that expanding the state's role is exactly what gives corporations REAL power through lobbying, rent-seeking and the all the rest. 

Comments

[David R. Henderson]

A wise mother only assuming wisdom has nothing to do with the soul. If my daughter could make a million dollars a year as a lobbyist, I would recommend, assuming she was lobbying for special privileges for her client, that she not. I think that makes me a wise father.

[Richard Ebeling]

To second David's comment about not selling one's soul for a million dollars through the method of political plunder, the following is from a talk that Ludwig von Mises delivered in 1943:

"It is a thankless job indeed to express such radical and 'subversive' opinions [as advocacy of free trade, laissez-faire, and free migration], and to incur the hatred of all supporters of the old system [of privilege and favors from the state] which has amply proved its inexpediency.

"But it is not the duty of the economist to be fashionable and popular; he has to be right. Those timid souls who fear challenging spurious doctrines and superstitions because they have the support of influential circles will never improve conditions. Let them call us 'orthodox'; it is better to be an intransigent orthodox than an opportunist time-server."

We should use such words as our motto at political times such as those through which we are living.

Richard Ebeling

[Michael]

Dr. Ebeling,

Thank you for the quote. As someone who appreciates the value of the heroic entrepreneur, this quote offers a concise definition of that view.

[Mike Rulle]

The "Doctor" story was a metaphor for less irrational times, not a call to arms to seek the highest form of gain regardless of activity.

Having said that, we will get more lobbyists because the slant of the playing table will roll the marbles in that direction.

Politicians, like all beings, seek their own advantage on average. Somehow, we have created a system in which it is to their advantage to create these monstrosity laws. It is not sufficient to think them stupid or venal (it may not even be correct) as the reason this happens.

But when you get a result, like we have now, it is similar to "compound interest"---its something that has been built over a long period of time. How did we let "this" happen and why did we ever think "it" was a good idea?

We got suckered into the Marxist morality play, inch by inch.

[LM]

There is an article up on the Chronicle of Higher Education that declares those who oppose the healthcare bill are the "I've got mine" crowd. Sigh. I give up.