Yesterday, Congressman Anthony Weiner (D-NY) appeared on MSNBC to promote the “public option” and maintained that would continue to push for a public plan in any House bill once he returns to Capitol Hill after recess.
Congressman Weiner, obviously no Economic Scholar, repeatedly declared that health care is not a commodity throughout the interview.
Ed Morrissey happily offers the Congressman an Economics 101 lesson free of charge:
Of course health care is a commodity. Weiner wants to use this populist pet phrase, which goes along with the notion of a “right” to health care, but it’s absurd. Food is a commodity, water is a commodity, clothing and shelter are commodities. Until cap-and-trade came up in the House, air was not a commodity, but carbon dioxide will shortly become one, even though life itself cannot exist without it. People have to produce the goods and services that comprise the health-care industry, which means that the supplies are finite and they expect to get compensated for their work. That makes it a commodity, regardless of Weiner’s socialist rhetoric. Anything with a cost is a commodity, by definition.
Morrissey points out that, “Anyone who doesn’t understand that much about economics has no business creating policy.”
Hear, hear! Words do have meaning, after all.
