Fantasy Agendas

Solve the entitlement problem at the stroke of a pen by raising the age of eligibility, AND by indexing benefits to prices, not wages.

Even if they were allowed to deregulate healthcare, why would any state do so? The potential benefits to a government official of doing so are unclear, but the possible downside is enormous -- surely risk aversion will kick in here. At the same time, shouldn't we expect some real rent-seeking problems to kick in if anyone proposed ending what must be a somewhat profitable cartel? I know who will lobby against deregulation -- who will lobby for it?

What I mean is, why would competition between states lead to deregulation in practice?

Which is your favorite global health R&D proposal? The current policy favorite (or at least my favorite) is the advance market commitment proposal. Is that what you were referring to, or are you thinking of one of the more strictly prize-oriented ideas?

I'm definitely not a Hacker fan. He's been posting at Kevin Drum's and much of what he posts is just dumb. It is entertaining though. Reading the comments is good for a laugh.

About all I can get on board with him is giving help to people who need to transition to new jobs.

"5. Try a pilot program that substitutes prizes for patents as incentives to develop pharmaceuticals."

Isn't the patent the prive for development?

Isn't the patent system totally broken?

This is a horrible idea.

My personal policy recommendation would be a change to unemployment insurance.

Instead of offering handouts to people that are not working, offer low interest loans to cover essentials: mortgages/rent, minimum credit card payments, utility bills, food allowance, etc.

Provide incentives for people to find work as soon as possible while taking as little as possible from the government.

Arnold,

Please do not be one of these ignorami who lumps all entitlements together. The medicare trust fund is currently running a deficit that is rapidly rising. There is clearly a problem with that one, and you are right that simply extending it to the rest of the population without any further changes is fiscally irresponsible.

However, there have been large amounts of literature showing that the mid-range forecast by the Social Security Trustees is simply ridiculously pessimistic. As long as real GDP growth exceeds about 2.2 % per year, well below historical rates, and below even our currently decelarated rate, and immigration continues at a modeslty positive rate, although well below our current one, the SS Trust Fund will run a surplus forever. There is no social security crisis and nothing needs to be done, unless one simply wishes to privatize for purely ideological reasons.

So, please do not join the chorus of idiots who conflate medicare and social security.

My fantasy list would be in order:
1. Privatize education and eliminate government spending on education in any form.
2. Eliminate government participation in healthcare and health insurance.
3. Reduce the role of government from being social patron to social servant.
4. Make House/Senate jobs/positions part-time jobs with part-time pay and no benefits.
5. Require Non-profit organizations to add social value by earning a profit. In other words, no special tax and regulations for non-profits.

I am in favour of greater use of prizes to stimulate medical research, but I am also in favour of increasing the use of patents. The great benefit of patents is that they provide an incentive for marketing and selling the product, wheras prizes provide an incentive for making a discovery but not exploiting it.

Chris:

Part of the point of unemployment insurance is so that people are not forced to find work as soon as possible: the first job opportunity that presents itself to a job applicant under pressure is likely to underutilize the applicant's human capital, harming both that applicant, and the less-skilled person who could also have filled that position.