17 September 2007

CO libertarian doc makes the big time

Paul S. Hsieh, MD, the Denver libertarian physician who believes that the best reform possible in U.S. healthcare would be to eliminate Medicaid and truly let the disabled, the poor, and so forth either die in the streets or be the grateful recipients of private charity, has hit the libertarian version of the powerball jackpot.

He's been published in Capitalism Magazine, a soapbox for the juvenile and immoral Ayn Rand® Institute. Good thing they registered that name, huh? Bravo for unfettered and amoral capitalism; selfishness is good; self-interest is all that counts and does bring happiness. Really.

Here's the link, should you want to sample regurgitated talking points against the Canadian system.

A friend commented this morning that for most intelligent people, Ayn Rand® is a short-lived phase in their freshman or sophomore year of college -- right before they discover Jack Kerouac's "On the Road" and "everything belongs to me because i am poor."

I'm not saying that "objectivism" and "sophomoric" are synonyms. Most people mature beyond a sophomoric inclination to live entirely for their own self-interest. Mercifully, most people drawn to practice medicine get beyond that in grade school.

Ayn Rand® may have played a larger role in what's wrong with the United States than we typically give her® credit for. An article in the NYT over the weekend posited that "Atlas Shrugged"(® no doubt) has been one of the most influential business books ever written.

It turns out that John Mackey, CEO of Whole Foods, is an Ayn® devotee. Why is that not surprising?

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