We’ll have to agree to disagree in just about everything in your latest.

“Insurance” in public policy terms is no more complicated than the government screwing around with “if this, then A” or “if not this, then B.”

It blows me away that so many people on their moral high horse about gambling have no problem with the insurance company business plan.

I don’t want to make insurance illegal for the same reason I don’t want to make shooting craps illegal. That does not mean I will willingly participate.

Of course, I have a personal problem with the business plan of banks as well. The only time I’ve had a bank account was when I worked for a data processing service bureau attached to a bank and they direct deposited my pay. Credit unions have been adequate to my needs for checking and savings accounts, car loans, signature loans in election years, and mortgages. Don’ need no estinkin’ banks.

I was for years in a state of high dudgeon about brokerage firms. I would complain about the commissions and people would ask what amount I would consider reasonable?

I would respond, “Zero. There’s plenty of opportunity to make money with arbitrage and interest on margin accounts. I might feel differently if trades closed within a few seconds rather than a few days.”

Then I would be called unreasonable and anti-capitalist. I am neither. I just do not care much for being ripped off.

And do I need to point out what the commissions are now at all the major on line brokerages?

Back to health insurance. I don’t want health insurance; I want health care. Inserting an insurance company wastes money just like inserting banks into federally guaranteed student loans wastes money.

This is not business. This is rent-seeking.