On Rationing vs. the Free Market

I hate it when professional philosophers and other academics, who you'd think would know better, can so muddle and obfuscate important issues by poorly defining their concepts. This happens a lot, with a recent example being an article written in the NY Times by Princeton philosopher Peter Singer, regarding the drive for universal health care in this country. See the concise and very clarifying response by Don Watkins, that clearly defines the difference between rationing and the free market, and obliterates the contradictory concept of "rationing by price". See also Paul Hsieh's posting on this at FIRM (includes link to original article by Singer, which requires NY Times login). As Paul nicely sums up at the end:

By drawing the proper distinction between free markets and rationing, Watkins shows that it is only the free market can create a morally just distribution of goods and services. Only the free market protects the rights of the producers who create those goods in the first place to trade with willing consumers on terms they find mutually acceptable.

If you still aren't convinced, let me ask you this: do you consider all pricing, of all goods, to be the same thing as "rationing" of those goods, that is, on a par with a system where government bureaucrats determined who could have what products? Consider for example children't toys. Is it unfair that you can't afford a particualr toy for your child? Is that "rationing"? Is that the same as if the government decided your family could have toy #1, but your neighbor could have toy #2? Or use any other commodity or service in this example taht you like: cars, homes, food, whatever. Is it "rationing" that you can't afford caviar or the nicest restaurant in town? Is it rationing that you can't afford a BMW? or a trip to Hawaii? or a bigger house? Clearly these are not examples of "rationing" -- there is an essential difference between you not being able to afford something you want, and the government controlling the distribution of a type of product or service and making decisions as to who can have what.

Always keep this essential distinction -- between the free-markets and rationing -- clearly in mind while considering the current debate about health care systems.