Whole Foods CEO John Mackey found himself in hot water lately. After likening the dubiously titled Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, typically known as ObamaCare, to fascism in an interview with NPR, Mackey is facing a wave of protests
Health Care 
Long Lines for Egalitarian Health Care
A new report by the Fraser Institute lends credence to what most Canadians seeking specialist medical care already know: wait times for medically necessary treatment remain too long. The December 2012 report is entitled “Waiting Your Turn, Wait Times for Health Care
An Analysis Of The Effects Of Prohibition Of Tobacco By Excessive Taxation
The following paper was prepared for and presented at the Toronto Austrian Scholars’ Conference, November 9-10, 2012. I would like to think that it is a work in progress. As such, I am looking forward to comments, as well as
A Brief History of Tommy Douglas
Tommy Douglas, the so-called “Greatest Canadian,” was actually born in Scotland in 1904. At age six, his family relocated to Winnipeg, Manitoba. Later, Douglas became a Baptist minister before becoming a politician. Most what of is taught or written about
Universal Mediocrity
Reprinted from City Journal In April, the British Medical Journal published “How the NHS Measures Up to Other Health Systems,†a report about two studies conducted by the New York–based Commonwealth Fund that compared the health-care systems of 14 advanced
The Morality of Choice
Picture yourself walking into a department store to purchase some laundry detergent. As you approach the aisle stocked full of brightly-labeled containers, you come face to face with a crucial decision. Which detergent do you choose? Do you go with
Eat Fat, Lose Fat
The topic of this article is going to seem to most as way outside my normal stomping grounds of economics and finance, but to those who know me well it will not be so strange. I am somewhat of a
Salt Crimes
Just as the winds of socialism blew-in from our southern border in the early 20th century [1], the War on Salt (WOS) is about to do the same. You may not know that in 2010 the New York government went
Health Care – The Insurance Odd Ball
My car was recently broken in to, and I had to work together with my auto insurance company in order to replace the damage. I was a bit unfamiliar with how this process would work because I do not need
Doctors: ‘Tax us. Canada is worth it.’
A group of doctors wants the federal and provincial governments to tax the rich more, with a misleading slogan of ‘Tax us. Canada’s worth it’ One might ask how this is misleading when they are asking for themselves to be
Health Care and Radical Monopoly
[Originally published in The Freeman, March 2010, Volume 60, Issue 2] In a recent article for Tikkun, Dr. Arnold Relman argued that the versions of health care reform currently proposed by “progressives†all primarily involve financing health care and expanding
Sweet Sorrow
It all started four days ago, when Nature published an article [gated] written by a group of researchers from the University of California, San Francisco, calling for the regulation of added sweeteners, “controlling them like alcohol.” The media pounced like a lion
Thoughts from a Canadian on the Canadian Socialized Medical System
“In Canada the state likes to control the industry; in the US monopoly power is doled out by the state but usually vests in private hands – so up here you have state monopolies and crown corporations while down there
The Soviet Medical Nightmare
[Originally published in the Free Market, Volume 8, Number 8, August 1990] The Soviet Union was the first country to introduce a fully nationalized health care system. To the cheers of Western “progressives,” Lenin signed a decree in 1919 stating that
The Myth of Single-Tier Medicine in Canada
[Originally Published September 16th, 2011, on www.williamgairdner.com] Politicians know there is a vast pool of latent citizen-envy lurking in the bosom of every nation, and that it is easily aroused with bogus equality–talk. Just so, an unreflective Canadian public has swallowed
Collectivized Care: Keystone of the Statist Society
The Canada Health Act, the crown jewel of the CCF, and Liberal Party is the most characteristic attribute that comes to mind with any discussion of Canada. Some writers even say that the State-run healthcare has become part of Canadian
All Power to the Poutine!
A headline in the National Post (07/10) announced, “Hot dogs and poutine stage comeback after Quebec rink’s fans revolt.†The story revolved around the town of Lac-Etchemin, Quebec that prided itself on being the first Canadian municipality to ban ‘unhealthy’
Health care in Japan: perfection
Let me start with the conclusion: I get treated medically same day (literally – sometimes same hour) for barely no fees in Japan with a speed I have never seen anywhere else on the planet. All hospitals in Tokyo treat
What’s Really Wrong with the Healthcare Industry
Originally Posted on mises.org, Wednesday, May 26th, 2010. On May 3, 2010, I gave a talk to a class of students studying public health policy at the University of Washington. I began the talk by asking the students how many
Is the Government Overpaying for Health Care?
With many goods and services, technological improvements lead to lower costs and prices. A desktop computer can be purchased for less than half of what it cost a decade ago, and the buyer gets far more processing power to boot.
New Comments on Mises Canada