Tax Prof Blog

Paul Caron, aka Tax Prof Blog, has a great post on the amount of donations the large universities receive for the endowment fund. What do these endowments do other than generate a net investment return. Doesn’t sound like a non-profit activity to me. Maybe O should look there for additional tax dollars instead trying to tax the middle class he claims to care about.

Actions speak much loader than words.

Government Intrusion into Markets

Notice that every time the government gets involved in a market, the normal economics of the market breaks down. Normally, if demand reduces because prices are too high for the customer, suppliers reduce the price to help stimulate the demand.

Think about how cities react to reduced ridership in public transit. What do they do? Increase prices.

Now, move this to healthcare. The actual customer (i.e. patient) has been taken out of the equation and basically has no direct interaction with the service provider due to private insurance, government programs, etc.

Like we just saw with oil, eventually, the market will win. Its too bad we don’t let it win in other sectors too.