View of Futures Past

The secret of happiness is to speak of all things in postive terms. When life gives you lemons, make lemonade. When you lose elections, describe your moral victory and exaggerate your minor successes. And, when you are demonstrating how effective public health care is going to be, write in glowing terms on the front page of your major metro newspaper:

3600 Doses in Smooth First Day

That's right, folks! In a spectacular response to a global pandemic, the government has succeeded in delivering 3600 doses to a city of 2.5 million

tested the patience of thousands of adults and children who lined up outside for hours

Yes, indeed, it is so reminiscent of those photos we used to scornfully see of the glories of life in the Soviet Union as the babushkas stood patiently outside the butcher shop hoping for a chunk of protein before supplies were exhausted. Lines for everything and nothing available. Government managed healthcare can bring that to us.

"This is pretty efficient" said Michael Buxton, a 53-year old Dallas resident whose breathing problems brought him to seek a shot. "I waited a couple of hours, but it was a lot smoother than it should have been."

Establish incredibly low expectations and then the slightest crust of bread dispensed becomes a success! A life of waiting in all weather in lines for a limited resource which might not be available when you get your turn if you ever do.

The state health department is significantly changing the way it distributes swine flu vaccine giving more control of vaccine to local health departments...The bump-up means less vaccine to private providers...more opportunity for the general public to get the vaccine.

How egalitarian! Can you relate this to government control of healthcare assets and freeze-out of private provider alternatives? Can you see a burgeoning bureaucracy with federal doling out to state which doles out to local government entities all staffed with non-medical bureaucrats rationing out a limited, critical resource?

Jack Hartley, a 79-year-old Mesquite man walked away willingly from a nurse processing his shot papers when asked why he needed one..."I've had cancer on and off for the last ten years"

That's as clear as I need to understand the operation of the "Death Panels." Show me a 79 year old cancer survivor and I'll show you a squandering of a healthcare asset that could be used more effectively on a younger person. Time for you to die, old man!

There's more in those two front page, above-the-fold, features. The spin is that this was just a grand demo of your government dealing with an issue. The pathetic truth is that it clearly shows us our future and the descent into the morass of a Soviet style of control of the marketplace and rationing of our lives.

We aren't entering this without a backlog of history to review. Everywhere that a controlled, government-managed economy has been tried the result has been shortages, mis-management, and societal decline. Apparently we haven't been able to learn those lessons from that history.