The crisis also reminds us of the importance of government and civil society. We do not turn to the private sector to control the spread of a disease like Ebola. Rather, we turn to institutions – the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in the United States, the World Health Organization (WHO), and Médecins Sans Frontières, the remarkable group of doctors and nurses who risk their lives to save those of others in poor countries around the world...the Ebola crisis calls into question is our reliance on the private sector to do the things that governments perform best.Does Stiglitz think that people wouldn't pay for treatment against Ebola? Does he think that private sector charities would ignore the Ebola-infected poor?
Does Stiglitz not realize that Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors without Borders) is a private sector charity?
From the Médecins Sans Frontières web site:
MSF's work is based on humanitarian principles. We are committed to bringing quality medical care to people caught in crisis, regardless of race, religion or political affiliation.
MSF operates independently. We conduct our own evaluations on the ground to determine people’s needs. More than 90 per cent of our overall funding comes from millions of private sources, not governments...MSF rejects the idea that poor people deserve third-rate medical care and strives to provide high-quality care to patients.
This guy's on crack! The CDC and other guberments have made this worse. Private individuals and companies would have isolated the source weeks ago. What a buffoon and mouthpiece for the status quo!
ReplyDelete---"Does Stiglitz not realize that Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors without Borders) is a private sector charity?"---
ReplyDeleteHe doesn't care, Robert. Little red Marxians are good at rationalizing everything and obfuscating anything that contradicts their true faith.
is it that he doesn't care or that he just assumes? Inquiring minds want to know. I'd give a large cash sum to ask him personally, depending on the viewing audience.
DeleteAlso see this wonderful story on how Firestone, a private company, contained ebola:
Deletehttp://www.ronpaulinstitute.org/archives/featured-articles/2014/october/12/liberty-not-government-is-key-to-containing-ebola/
"Firestone Tire and Rubber Company has successfully contained the spread of Ebola among 80,000 people living in Harbel, the Liberian town housing employees of Firestone's Liberian plant and their families. In March, after the wife of a Firestone employee developed Ebola symptoms, Firestone constructed its own treatment center and implemented a program of quarantine and treatment. Firestone has successfully kept the Ebola virus from spreading among its employees. As of this writing, there are only three Ebola patients at Firestone's treatment facility."
You don't have to develop a vaccine for something that isn't allowed to spread in the first place. Emphasis on "allowed."
They're only important because they might kill you.
ReplyDeleteSee: state run hospitals in Africa that spread the epidemics time and time again. Oops, forgot that minor detail!