Wednesday, December 23, 2009

health care and education

Will the government's increased role in health care cause it to more closely resemble the education system?  The U.S. public school system used to be world class.  It clearly no longer is as a whole.  But, some private schools and higher education institutions continue to be very good (for a price).  And teaching is generally a second-choice career.  Will medicine follow?  Where, because we start with today's quality, it will be hard to perceive its decline for many years?  And we will find ourselves in a two-tier system where many of the participants receive the lower-tier quality?  And, perhaps far into the future, agitation for vouchers or similar market based incentives (needing the years in the desert to internalize that the highest quality medicine cannot be available for all for free)?

Thursday, December 17, 2009

Intel antitrust

I don't know the relative merits of the case but I would note that Intel doesn't seem to have sat on its heels despite its dominant position.  I would say some other companies with antitrust issues have not made as many significant improvements in their products as Intel has in microprocessor speed.  But who knows, maybe Moore's Law could have been surpassed with a freer market.