Author: S. Smith

Corruption flourishes when competition is absent

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There is no more effective check on human behavior than competition. No law, no regulation, no system of “checks and balances” comes close to forcing good behavior on the powerful in the way that competition does. When your target audience has the ability to walk away, you change your behavior. This is the inherent genius of a market economy. Economic actors must perfect their ability to persuade someone to do business with them. Competition forces us to develop civilization-reinforcing virtues. Honesty, attention, persuasion, quality, and many others, are required to flourish within a market order. The flip side of this is that, in the absence of competition, the worst qualities in our nature rise to the top. Dishonesty, low quality, high price, et cetera. I’m reminded of this when I see hospital CEOs give joint press conferences with local mayors and town councils. They operate within an industry that is effectively devoid of competition, and their behavior reflects that. This is why they can lie about hospital capacity with a straight face, and pump up fear regarding COVID-19. I have a theory that, if true competition existed in healthcare, no pandemic would exist. The competing hospitals would effectively refute the narrative that COVID-19 poses an abnormal risk to society at large. These hospitals would take all of the patients that had been thrown out of hospitals in the Spring.

Because of this lack of competition, hospitals and healthcare providers are speaking with a single voice, and advancing a single narrative. The danger posed by this competition-free industry is too great to allow to continue. Competition must be introduced before the white collar thugs that comprise it do any further damage.