Michael Moore

I will give Michael Moore some credit for figuring out how to monetize his stupidity.  But, it’s hard to believe that someone who’s been around as long as he doesn’t seem to have a clue on how markets work.

“But fire and police departments are socialist.  We shouldn’t have profit in life and death matters.” Seems to be Michael Moore’s stance.

Sorry Michael.  Bad comparison on several levels.  Nobody has an incentive to use fire and police resources when not needed.  In cases where overuse was occuring - like responding to false burglar alarms - many police departments started charging a fee to cover the cost of the wasted resources.  In Micheal’s health care system, would he charge a fee for somebody going to the doctor when they didn’t need to?    

Fire and police departments are locally controlled – usually at a city or county level.  Which means there’s a free market element in police and fire units that Michael doesn’t see.  If police or fire protection in my town are bad, I can choose to live elswhere.  Imagine local police and fire protection provided by the Federal government.  I wouldn’t have that choice. 

Likewise, with thousands of independently run police and fire departments out there, you get the benefits of free market innovation.  Each individual department is a lab experiment on how to provide the best protection.  When one group in Cedar Rapids, IA discovers a better practice, other groups can adopt that practice.  How would that work in a Federally controlled system where everything was dictated from the top?