| Lesson 24: Rational Rationing |
The current debate about rationing health care has revealed the main flaw of the Socialists, who deny that
they want rationing. It also shows a streak of dishonesty in some conservative propagandists who accuse them
of doing so. The word ration comes from ratio. A ratio is the result of the calculation of division. (Ratio is
actually Latin for calculate). Rationing is the process of dividing up a limited supply.
All resources, including doctors and MRI's, must be rationed because all resources are limited. The question
is not IF you ration, the question is HOW you ration. The main flaw of Socialism is that it is blind to limitation.
Socialists deny that they ration because they don't believe in limits. After all, how can you divide something
that is infinite? * Because there are no limits, they ration by turn: They get in lines and take turns devouring a
supply like locusts until it is all gone. Because the government owns the resources, the politically connected
are allowed to cut in line.
Capitalism is conservatism. The capitalist, realizing that resources are limited, will conserve those resources.
We do this in the most rational way possible: we ration by price. Price is a negative feedback system.
A negative feedback system is a term most commonly used in biology. It is a system where the result of a
process suppresses the continuation of that process. For example, your pituitary stimulates your thyroid to
secrete thyroid hormone. The thyroid hormone in turn has a negative feedback effect on the pituitary - it
suppresses the pituitary. This keeps a nice, even supply of thyroid hormone in your blood. When something
stays at a constant level, that is called a steady state.
In capitalism, people own the resources and we set prices on them. As the supply of a resource goes down,
"greedy" capitalists raise the price. That suppresses demand and consumption until supply comes up again.
This negative feedback system keeps our supplies in a steady state. We are, after all, biological creatures.
* Limit blindness is what leads to the idea of open borders.
they want rationing. It also shows a streak of dishonesty in some conservative propagandists who accuse them
of doing so. The word ration comes from ratio. A ratio is the result of the calculation of division. (Ratio is
actually Latin for calculate). Rationing is the process of dividing up a limited supply.
All resources, including doctors and MRI's, must be rationed because all resources are limited. The question
is not IF you ration, the question is HOW you ration. The main flaw of Socialism is that it is blind to limitation.
Socialists deny that they ration because they don't believe in limits. After all, how can you divide something
that is infinite? * Because there are no limits, they ration by turn: They get in lines and take turns devouring a
supply like locusts until it is all gone. Because the government owns the resources, the politically connected
are allowed to cut in line.
Capitalism is conservatism. The capitalist, realizing that resources are limited, will conserve those resources.
We do this in the most rational way possible: we ration by price. Price is a negative feedback system.
A negative feedback system is a term most commonly used in biology. It is a system where the result of a
process suppresses the continuation of that process. For example, your pituitary stimulates your thyroid to
secrete thyroid hormone. The thyroid hormone in turn has a negative feedback effect on the pituitary - it
suppresses the pituitary. This keeps a nice, even supply of thyroid hormone in your blood. When something
stays at a constant level, that is called a steady state.
In capitalism, people own the resources and we set prices on them. As the supply of a resource goes down,
"greedy" capitalists raise the price. That suppresses demand and consumption until supply comes up again.
This negative feedback system keeps our supplies in a steady state. We are, after all, biological creatures.
* Limit blindness is what leads to the idea of open borders.