[anon808]

so are you saying not having health insurance is better for people? I'll take the common sense angle that having health insurance increases the chances of medical care being applied to a health problem, versus not having any health care insurance.

there's no such thing as a monolithic 'government' being that can either work better or be enabled to act a certain way. there are people, and groups of people that do certain things. some of those things are worthless, some of those things are worthwhile. i'd argue the mess the 'rock stars' cleaned up is a generally positive activity.

[trhway]

>so are you saying not having health insurance is better for people?

i'm just saying that being from a poor or damaged family, uneducated, having mental illness or substance abuse problem, etc... usually leads to higher mortality and also to not having health insurance. Giving them a health insurance [i'm all for it, i think modern civilized society should provide basic level of free health insurance to everybody] would be inconsequential in many cases as not having the insurance isn't the cause, just a manifestation.

>there's no such thing as a monolithic 'government' being that can either work better or be enabled to act a certain way.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Systems_theory

and if we specifically consider a closed loop system of "government + society" then this may be of interest too:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cybernetics

[saraid216]

I completely support the conclusion that we should be fixing our third variables.