At 06:49 AM 8/31/2010, you wrote:
>That's well said and absolutely true :)
>Self interest runs the world and for the most part is a good thing 
>because it motivates people to do more than the minimum required, to 
>create great innovations, and find ways to be the most 
>efficient.  This has been an interesting conversation (at least it 
>hasn't devolved into name calling like the last heated off topic outburst).
>
>In my opinion the great counterbalances to greed (too much of 
>anything is bad) is responsibility and accountability.  Many people 
>that complain about greed are not taking responsibility for 
>themselves (I don't think the examples on this list fit that).  The 
>biggest example of lack of accountability I've seen is in our 
>Government.  They act as if the money they take from us isn't our 
>money.  I wish every thing they spend money on was subject to a 
>public vote.  It would slow pork barrel spending for sure.
>
>Socialization sounds like a great idea until you see it in 
>action.  My wife works in healthcare and sees it every day.  People 
>from Canada come HERE for treatment because they can get it NOW and 
>get the best medical care they can afford.  When you take away the 
>motivation to do more people do less, they don't innovate, they 
>don't look for ways for greater efficiency.  In a lot of ways well 
>meaning laws get in the way.  You just can't break into the medical 
>industry because of all the bureaucracy involved from our government 
>and beyond.  If I came up with a cure for Cancer in a lab in my 
>house it would have zero chance of making it into the world without 
>going through a gatekeeper.  The SYSTEM is broken because of too 
>much bureaucracy and too many gatekeepers.
>
>It's people like us that can make it change.  Look at Linux.  If it 
>had a single 'head' someone would have sued it out of existence but 
>since there is no single point of control the will of the community 
>moves forward despite those that would try to cheat.  Oracle buys 
>MySQL, MySQL forks several ways.  Freedom persists.  We've removed 
>almost all of the bureaucracy from Linux and the best of the best 
>moves forward.  It's amazing how far Linux has come since I started 
>using it in 1993.  Open medicine would have the same effect.


Here is an interesting medical 
group:  http://www.canaryfoundation.org/index.cfm