[lenerdenator]

Cynically, this sounds to me like something that people typically suggest we leave up to markets. Is that insane? Yes, but it's already a business model, and health insurance basically does that.

These people make vast sums of money every year by asking the American people what it's worth to them to not be ruined by a chance illness or injury, then finding ways to make sure they don't have to save people from financial ruin or death. I don't see how that's really so different from a protection racket, except for the fact that most protection rackets were operated with more good faith effort towards the extorted.

[gruez]

>These people make vast sums of money every year by asking the American people what it's worth to them to not be ruined by a chance illness or injury, then finding ways to make sure they don't have to save people from financial ruin or death. I don't see how that's really so different from a protection racket, except for the fact that most protection rackets were operated with more good faith effort towards the extorted.

This definition of a "protection racket" is a bit loose. By similar logic landlords are also a "protection racket" for having a place to hive.

[lenerdenator]

> This definition of a "protection racket" is a bit loose. By similar logic landlords are also a "protection racket" for having a place to hive.

“As soon as the land of any country has all become private property, the landlords, like all other men, love to reap where they never sowed and demand a rent even for its natural produce.” - known Marxist-Leninist Adam Smith

[gruez]

An apartment, or healthcare is hardly "natural produce".