[CatoRenasci]

Of course there's no free lunch -- I'm a longtime admirer of what Milton Freedman described as the "eight word theory of political economy"

1. Ain't No Free Lunch

2. Them what has, gets

which has always struck me as elegant as well as true. Others prefer the Heinlein incarnation from The Moon is a Harsh Mistress: "TANSTAAFL - there ain't no such thing as a free lunch" or the "golden rule" He who has the gold, rules..

While cost must undoubtedly taken into account, and rational decisions made about the most cost effective ways of dealing with epidemics, the thrust of your post was different. You implied that the solution was some combination of private and charitable action, not state action. While ordinary health care issues ought indeed be dealt with in that way, I think the SARS situation is different in kind: it is the sort of potential publich health crisis that requires state action. It was precisely to deal with things of this sort that the Surgeon General's position was created and the uniformed Public Health Service created, in the 19th century when epidemics were still common phenomena.

[Gorjus]

You implied that the solution was some combination of private and charitable action, not state action.

********

What I actually said was:

It may indeed be the right thing to do to pay from them collectively (charity donations, special tax, even tax breaks for the producers that offset the costs of production, transportation, distribution) . . .

Don't know how things are where you're from, but where I come from, taxes are a state action. If you've got some way to levy private taxes, please let us in on it!