[dragonwriter]

> I need to think this through carefully, but your reasoning may very well apply to health-care too.

I haven't seen the numbers on education, but certainly no OECD country has healthcare more expensive than that in the US. Heck, many pay less in public funds than the US, even though the private healthcare costs in the US are a little bit higher than the public costs -- and this was true before the Affordable Care Act, just to forestall anyone who might blame "ObamaCare".

[Cshelton]

Let's go through some simple logic here...other countries have less expensive healthcare, they pay less in public redistributions for healthcare, and that equates to a better healthcare system? If I'm a skilled doctor, from an microeconomic stand point, I'm going to work in a place that has higher compensation. You seem to go under the assumption that less expensive = better...

[wtallis]

He's not assuming any such absurd implication. He's assuming (quite charitably) that you are not completely ignorant of the basic facts of the healthcare debate: that the US system is vastly more expensive than any other country and produces sub-par outcomes when compared to other developed countries. (In the US, the rich can get top-notch healthcare, but this does little to bring up the averages.)

[dragonwriter]

No, other developed countries have generally comparable results in concrete outcome measurements to the US, as well as lower (per capita and per GDP) public + private costs, and better access (universal, generally) to non-emergency care.

Additionally, several also have lower public + private costs than the US's public costs (which in turn are lower than US private costs).

[Luc]

Cshelton has got to be a troll. I'm kind of ashamed I fell for it, but oh well, live and learn.