Simple answer: F. A. Hayek came up with the idea of Fatal Conceit, that it is impossible for a few people to have sufficient knowledge to run an economy – at all. There are just too many inputs for too many decisions for any central planners to know exactly what has to be done correctly. It can only be done by the those in that economy acting upon their own best interest and cooperating with their “trading partners” for best value. In short, a free marketplace. A perfect example is this video from Fox News with the host asking Kirstin Powers this about Obamacare (Video after the jump – the question is around 2:26):
“The people that are backing this plan now versus back in the 1990s are saying the differences, that people care more about cost than they do about the amount of doctors and the number of facilities that they can go to – do you believe that to be true?”
The Conceit? That the Obamacare planners have decided that consumers only have one important factor: cost. Nothing else matters as much, so that’s how they’ve structured the entire takeover of the US’s healthcare system. Yet, Kirstin Powers skewers that right away:
Some people care about that and some people don’t. I think everyone sort of makes that decision for themselves…Some people believe this decision has been taken away from them.
Unless one is rich enough to spend as they want, the choice to choose among alternatives HAS been taken away from us all – and