Letter to the Editor:

Government endeavors can succeed as well

Gerry Hageman, Las Vegas

Tuesday, Oct. 27, 2009 | 2:04 a.m.

Regarding Bob Jack’s letter to the editor in Sunday’s Las Vegas Sun, headlined “Without profit motive, all endeavors fail”:

I attended Santa Monica High School and went on to get a degree in economics from UCLA. After UCLA, I went to work for the Santa Monica Police Department because I wanted a job that afforded me good wages, health care and a good pension at retirement.

I received an excellent education at the aforementioned institutions and had a wonderful career at the police department — all of which get taxpayer money.

In terms of K-12 education, private schools are able to cherry-pick their students whereas public schools must take everyone. Many of the children who go to private schools have affluent, well-educated parents. This gives them an advantage in school and leads to better test scores when compared with children in public schools.

In terms of health care and insurance, private insurance companies cherry-pick whom they will accept and tend to accept only the healthiest among us. The sickest among us are the elderly and gravely disabled. They are covered under Medicare and Medicaid.

If the government is insuring all the sick people and private insurance is insuring only the healthy people, funding issues are going to occur in the government program. But none of these government programs will go broke. The vast majority of people need them.

What will happen is the tax system will be changed to provide the funding for these programs in an aging society. If private insurers had to cover Medicare and Medicaid patients, they would all go broke before happy hour.

Mr. Jack also talks about breakthrough drugs and innovation in the private sector. Many of these breakthroughs come from learning institutions such as UCLA. They receive a great deal of government money that facilitate the innovative breakthroughs he is talking about.

Discussion: 14 comments so far…

By Future

10/27/09 at 2:33 a.m.

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"If the government is insuring all the sick people and private insurance is insuring only the healthy people, funding issues are going to occur in the government program. But none of these government programs will go broke."

Why because our taxes keep going up or they borrow and put it on our grandkids.

Medicare has un unfunded liability og $30 trillion.
By brownln4

10/27/09 at 4:09 a.m.

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Dateline - Year 2025 - Just out, the IRS has lowered the bottom tax rate to 75% due to a drop in health care benefits last month. The gov't plan with the latest pig flu outbreak is to not have vaccine available in time so many will no longer need health care next year. Pres Obama (still in office reading a teleprompter after changing the Constitiution) says not to worry. He has a large tent on the White House back lawn with entertainment for those waiting for a flu shot - plan on staying 3-5 days as only the folks paying taxes can have a shot so bring proof of employment. By the way, all members of congress got their flu shots as their services are vital to the country and they have to consider revision number 357 to the 2009 health care bill - seems they covered non tax paying seniors over the age of 86 in that bill and we can't have that. More to come - stay tuned to gov't run TV, radio and newspapers on ine.
By gunowners4obama

10/27/09 at 6 a.m.

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brown, flu shots = big money for big pharma.
By Houstonjac

10/27/09 at 8:10 a.m.

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Also attended UCLA, with major in econ--plus attended private universities, including MS degree at Claremont Graduate University and MBA.
UCLA is in a rich kid's atmosphere in Westwood,CA--a luxurious Campus that puts its cross town rival(private and pricey USC) to shame.There is not enough federal grant money at UCLA(or the entire UC system for that matter)to fund the break thru drugs on the market. Billions in private funds are needed for the drugs and the medical technology used today. The only way to fund the govt option is with a mass injection of taxpayer dollars. There will still be 10 million uncovered under the best Congressional plan.It looks as though the Congress and administration are going to ram this option down the throats of Americans anyway. Only time will tell how long it will take to water down/dismantle this public option. I think majority of America is ready to change the liberal equation in 2010/2012.
By jlb101

10/27/09 at 8:12 a.m.

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The things that seem like successes are almost always a failure due to the outrageous cost. That is never brought up.

Wouldn't it be wonderful if the government spent itself into bankruptcy and we didn't have to deal with those worthless dregs any more.
By Patrick_R_Gibbons

10/27/09 at 8:37 a.m.

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1) Private schools are for the rich because government "competition" has made it so.
2) Private schools out perform public schools even when controlling for factors like race and socioeconomic status
3) Private schools teacher mentally handicapped kids far better and far cheaper than public schools
4) Public health care doesn't perform like you think it does. This isn't fantasy land. Americans with our private health care system are twice as likely to receive dialysis or kidney transplants and are more likely to survive cancer than many European universal care states. That isn't to say we can't make things better, but government care doesn't work
5) The government's war on poverty hasn't improved welfare at all
6) Government's attempts to make housing cheaper has only made it more expensive
7) Government subsidies, quotas, import restricts and tariffs keep food prices high. Then our government doles out food stamps so the poor can afford the artificially higher priced food.

Government is not some fairyland of buttercup bureaucrats and gumdrop dreams. Government doesn't function very well for a very good reason -- lacking a profit motive it has NO NEED to satisfy your needs and wants. It only needs to take your money by force.
By Patrick_R_Gibbons

10/27/09 at 8:52 a.m.

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The DC voucher program gave up to $7,500 scholarships for low income kids to attend a private school of their parent's choice. DC public schools have an operating budget of over $16,000 per pupil and a total budget of more than $24,000 per pupil.

Because there was more demand than money available, students had to participate in a lottery to win a scholarship to attend a private school. Meaning they were randomly selected to study at a private school. Only kids in low-income families were allowed to participate (free and reduced lunch eligible - meaning incomes of $38,000 or less for a family of four).

Like a medical study which randomly assigns a test subjects to a treatment group and control group this program allowed researchers to examine the results of students randomly assigned to private schools and public schools. Students randomly assigned to a private school (they won the lottery) were in the treatment group and students randomly assigned to the public schools were the control group. Randomized studies allow researchers to control for outside factors like race, income, IQ, parental motivation because students are randomly chosen to recieve the treatment. The results were significant.

After 3 years in the program, students which attended private schools had an 18 month reading advantage over their counterparts which attended the public schools.

To date there is not a single randomized study that suggests public schools outperform private schools. This study was also sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education.
By ghostcommander

10/27/09 at 12:33 p.m.

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At present private health insurers with their Medicare Advantage Plans insure 25% of those on Medicare.
By StanG

10/27/09 at 1:38 p.m.

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School vouchers are a government subsidy to private enterprise. Why are conservatives asking the taxpayers to support corporations? Conservatives are against wealth distribution unless it's from the bottom to the top.
By jlb101

10/27/09 at 3:56 p.m.

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School vouchers are a government subsidy to individual students. In most cases the student can use the voucher any where they choose which is accredited. Remember the GI bill? Remember student loans? All pretty much the same thing.
By StanG

10/28/09 at 1:15 a.m.

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No not the same at all. Students can go to public school free. Vets can't. School vouchers are a subsidy to private schools. I understand you don't want to admit that because then you'd be in favor of government handouts. but there's no getting around it. The voucher is socialism.
Think back on some of your own previous posts where you insisted, for example, that health care is not a right and why should you pay for someone else's?
By Patrick_R_Gibbons

10/30/09 at 9:28 a.m.

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StanG

Vouchers are subsidies for parents to afford the education they want their child to have. Vouchers are a semi-socialist solution to providing higher quality education. Simply put the Marxist top-down traditional public education approach hasn't worked well -- especially for minority and low-income students.

Vouchers just reinvent the way we think about public education. The public still provides support so the education is free, but the parent gets to choose whatever school the child attends. Private companies run the schools because, well, private companies are better at adapting, innovating and being more efficient. This is also why charter schools tend to outperform.

By the way, charter schools in Clark County operate on about $6,200 per pupil with no access to the capital projects or debt service funds (those help bring CCSD spending to over $12,000 per pupil).
By Patrick_R_Gibbons

10/30/09 at 9:29 a.m.

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PS, vouchers move us in the right direction - towards free markets. Obamacare moves us in the wrong direction - toward government control.

Public education doesn't work well and neither will public health care - all for the same reasons.
By Patrick_R_Gibbons

10/30/09 at 9:37 a.m.

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PS, Obama sends his kids to Sidwell Friends, a private school in DC. They charge about $29,800 a year per child for tuition.

Two low-income kids currently attend the school using the $7,500 DC voucher. Their parents pay NOTHING else.

How exactly is the private school being subsidized with $7,500, when it charges rich kids $29,800?