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Bad analogy of the day

July 01, 2009 3:47 pm ET by Jamison Foser

ABC's John Stossel enthusiastically endorses this health care nonsense from a Wall Street Journal op-ed:

"We need a public plan to keep the private plans honest."

But then why stop there? Eating is even more important than health care, so shouldn't we have government-run supermarkets "to keep the private ones honest"? After all, supermarkets clearly put profits ahead of feeding people. And we can't run around naked, so we should have government-run clothing stores to keep the private ones honest.

Supermarkets make money by selling people food.  Clothing stores make money by selling people clothes. If they don't give people food/clothing, they don't get money.

Insurance companies, on the other hand, make money by selling people insurance -- and they make even more money by selling insurance, and then denying claims.

Surely even John Stossel can see the difference.

Tags: Wall Street Journal, ABC, John Stossel

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    • Author by seeryer (July 01, 2009 4:22 pm ET)
      2  
      You know they are losing the argument when they start using outlandish scenarios to argue against something. Sort of like marrying a duck.
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      • Author by Limit Corp. Ownership (July 01, 2009 4:54 pm ET)
        2  
        Or marrying a Stossel

        Let's see. We have 50 million Americans without healthcare--most from working families. So, under Stossel's the Clown's reasoning, what if we had 50 million Americans who didn't have any food?

        Oh, never mind.


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    • Author by thebewilderness (July 01, 2009 4:52 pm ET)
      2  
      I have read some of Stossel's work, and I suspect he is unable, due to an obstreperol lobe malfunction, to perceive the difference between getting what you pay for and not getting what you pay for.
      It could also be that his future income depends on not grasping the difference.
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      • Author by Limit Corp. Ownership (July 01, 2009 4:57 pm ET)
        2  
        Yes, it's much easier to be a conservative when you're in the top 5% or 10%.

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        • Author by goesto11 (July 02, 2009 8:26 am ET)
             
          Given the number of Americans that currently label themselves Republican, we may be heading toward the point where the top 5-10% are the only conservatives left.

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    • Author by mattcable250650 (July 01, 2009 5:14 pm ET)
      2  
      The really important distinction between buying health services and say, boats, is that when one buys a boat, one says to oneself "I want this and hmm, lemme see, yeah, I've got the money to buy it." No one says "I want a heart attack and my insurance can handle it."
      Health problems lack the voluntary nature of buying boats. No one plans on a heart attack. Health is therefore fundamentally different from other types of expenditures that one makes under capitalism. Ergo, one can't use a system for covering health that works perfectly well for buying boats.
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      • Author by pags2 (July 01, 2009 8:46 pm ET)
        1  
        Even more so, any insurance company policy is the same as all the others in the market. So you end up with insurance that does very little for the consumer because of all the exclusions on the policies. The consumer has no alternatives in the private insurance industry.
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        • Author by goesto11 (July 02, 2009 8:33 am ET)
             
          Other than insurance, I can't think of many industries where the company charges you and then gets to decide whether they want to provide the service/goods.

          "Thanks for your payment, but we've decided it's not in our best interest to give you these shoes today. Make sure you come back and see us again!"

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    • Author by harley (July 01, 2009 6:16 pm ET)
         

      Teabaggers and bad analogies go can hand-in-hand. ....paging princess...
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    • Author by mk3872 (July 01, 2009 6:16 pm ET)
         
      Of course he knows there is a difference. He is just playing the role of lacky for right wing nut jobs and big business.
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      • Author by Col. Harlan Sanders (July 01, 2009 6:23 pm ET)
        1  
        The sad part is how many uninsured Americans eat this stuff up from elitists like Stossell, who I imagine has a very nice health plan in place.
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        • Author by Limit Corp. Ownership (July 01, 2009 6:38 pm ET)
          1  
          He probably has one of those "Cadillac" plans Colonel...

          He's afraid his taxes might go up a little.
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    • Author by nerzog (July 01, 2009 6:20 pm ET)
         
      I've said this many times before, but that won't stop me from repeating myself: Conservatives can't do analogies. It's the most bizarre thing.

      One HUGE difference between Grocery Stores and Insurance Companies is that Grocery stores don't lock out millions of potential customers because of "pre-existing conditions". If they did, then maybe the Government would have to step in.

      Even the precious Republican "free market" argument fails when it comes to Health Insurance. In the free market, you should be able to buy a product if you have the money. That is not always the case with insurance. I, like many others, have the money for premiums, but I cannot buy Health Insurance on the open market as an individual.
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      • Author by Col. Harlan Sanders (July 01, 2009 6:27 pm ET)
           
        Conservatives can't do analogies

        it is fascinating. Countless times at this site, I've tried to make analogies (some pretty good, some not so great) to illustrate a point that a conservative was having trouble with. Usually it involved applying their logic to differetn specifics, a topic that wasn't so emotionally charged for them.

        The response I got most often was either "That's not exactly the same thing!" (of course not, then it wouldn't be an analogy, it would be a redundancy), or "You're changing the subject!" (Meaning that the abstract thinking needed for an analogy was just too much for them).
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    • Author by jlw7717595 (July 01, 2009 7:18 pm ET)
         
      Maybe if the private food industry started denying people food then we would need government to come in and keep them honest.

      I wish people would stop comparing healthcare to other commodities.
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    • Author by captfoster2 (July 01, 2009 7:35 pm ET)
         
      "Supermarkets make money by selling people food. Clothing stores make money by selling people clothes. If they don't give people food/clothing, they don't get money.

      Insurance companies, on the other hand, make money by selling people insurance -- and they make even more money by selling insurance, and then denying claims.

      Surely even John Stossel can see the difference."

      Probably he does... but since he is a paid for corporate whore... he ignores the facts and speaks the talking-points like the a good little minion.
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    • Author by pete592 (July 02, 2009 12:39 am ET)
         
      A person can grow his own food.

      A person cannot perform surgery on himself.
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    • Author by mfinn7314 (July 02, 2009 7:24 am ET)
         
      Surely even Stossel can see the difference but he intentionally or pretends not to. This is typical Stossel use of phony arguments and comparisons. A waste of air and print space.
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