Quote Originally Posted by Renton View Post
I'm not enough of a post office expert to back this up, but if what you say is true it's probably not true in the modern age with modern technology. And I'm having trouble figuring out why a for profit shipping company wouldn't deliver somewhere assuming the price was right. I.E. it might charge a higher price to deliver to Alaska because the costs are simply much greater. And if one for profit company decides to back out of that market, that's simply another signal for more private enterprise to scoop that up.
It's a pretty old argument that isn't really that relevant anymore. Certain parts of Scotland are a complete cunt to get to, but still needed regular postal service. It isn't a one off letter type thing.

Again, I fail to see why a private hospital would deny giving a procedure in a price-coordinated economy. They don't just say "fuck that I'm not doing that." They adjust the price upward as necessary until it covers their costs. Now in your example they might be refusing to do such procedures because they are coexisting with NHS, which provides such procedures at low cost to all the citizens. But that hardly points out a flaw in the free market, its a flaw in the hybrid state/private healthcare system in the U.K.
That's not the case at all. The government funds the majority of procedures that people will need to have done, through the taxes that people pay. The NHS uses this to prop up other areas which aren't profitable. If the private companies were to offer these procedures that I'm talking about, the price would have to be extortionate and therefore unaffordable to the majority of people who need it. Which is why they wouldn't offer it.

Governments aren't ineffective at running markets because of laziness or incompetence. They are ineffective because its a relatively small group of people in a position to control a market to which they have no expertise. The best they can do is make decisions that have favorable political consequences, and maybe appoint those who they think are the top experts on a field. It's a very sloppy and ineffective process compared to what goes on in a free market, which has a way of tapping the ingenuity of individuals in a large group (society).
Yeah, all the people who run organisations like the NHS are completely clueless. They aren't some of the most well educated people in the world. They have absolutely no expertise in the areas that they work in.