Da Weekend

So... Friday afternoon we took the Things to the sitter, packed the car, and drove to Crossroads at Canterbury, the Chaucer-themed SCA event we've been looking forward to for a year. After that build-up, it couldn't possibly live up to expectations, but overall it was quite a good event, and some parts were incredible.

It was of course burdened by the addition of the Kingdom Rattan Champions' tourney, which predictably brought in a lot of people who had no interest in the theme of the event... but on the other hand, their presence covered the site rental, and left the organizers with less to worry about financially, so I shouldn't complain.

( Blow-by-blow account of the event )

insurance rant

Picking up on this post, as well as Sen. Clinton's announcement of her so-called health-care plan...

People have several objections to single-payer health insurance plans:

1. it'll cost too much money;


2. it robs Americans of their freedom of choice; and


3. it's not free-market; Communism collapsed because the free market works better and produces more efficient allocation of resources.

( My answers to these objections )

Now, I won't deny the danger of runaway costs due to (as jducoeur pointed out) a "tragedy of the commons": if the person deciding what resources to use isn't paying the full incremental cost of using those resources, the resources will be overused. This needs to be addressed, e.g. with deductibles, copays, etc. But remember also that most (sane) people don't actually enjoy medical treatment; any kind of medical treatment carries a cost in time and discomfort to the patient, and this should act as a partial counterweight to the "tragedy of the commons" phenomenon.