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Fast forward 10 years into obamacare and replace “mailbox” with “doctor” in the story for a preview of the news...

"I think private insurers should be able to compete. They do it all the time. I mean, if you think about, if you think about it, um, UPS and FedEx are doing just fine. Right? The, uh, no they are. I mean, it's the post office that's always having problems." - Barack Obama

Fast forward 10 years into obamacare and replace “mailbox” with “doctor” in the story for a preview of the news...

you got it backwards: socialism tries to spread resources equally, capitalism concentrates them where the money is. when the USPS says they are trying to cut costs they are responding to capitalist pressures, like any private business would. whether this is good or not depends on how much you like Ayn Rand.

think about roads in rural areas -- we have socialized roads in the US. if we took tolls or taxes from everyone who needed a road, there would be no money to make rural roads profitable, so people in denser areas are footing the bill for road maintenance in sparser areas.

the same goes for police and fire departments somewhat. should you have to pay more municipal taxes for these services if your house is wood instead of brick, or if you live in a high crime area? maybe you could get a rebate on police-related taxes if you own a gun and decide you don't need the cops to show up quickly if someone is trying to break in?

anyway these are my current thoughts on government services: clearly we put up with quite a few socialist government services already, and whether health care should be one of them takes a lot of thought.

right now i think emergency medical care should be socialized (what kind of comparison shopping can you do if you burnt your hand or have a heart attack?) but dermatology, elective surgery, dentistry, etc shouldn't.