[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.