I accept and appreciate your rant Bucky. It's a good one to start the morning off right.

Now a question: Do you see ~any~ way that the system we have can actually be reformed? Seriously? I agree that there are a ton and a half of things wrong with the system. It has been a disaster and a disgrace for decades. The ACA 'Obamacare' addition? 100 pounds of ugly on top of an already ugly situation.

Face it Bucky, the system doesn't work. It can't work. It is filled with graft and corruption and protectionism and influence peddling and market barriers and every other kind of market skewing mechanism imaginable. It is a complete and unredeemable market failure. When they write the book on it in a hundred years people will shake their heads that we tolerated it.

But remember this: Competition exists between countries/systems as well as between companies within a system. We can't afford to have such a costly and inefficient system and we will drop it sooner or later. Like it or not. We will be forced to adopt one of the systems of the countries we trade with. This system will be protected and resist change at all costs. Eventually we will break it not because we are "socialist" or "commie" but simply because other nations do it cheaper and we'll be forced to adopt their system.

Will