Operationally it would be easier to do it through employers since in the UK many of them offer supplementary private health care so basically the infrastructure is already there and it could be implemented swiftly. It is cheaper to buy it through employers rather than individually since there is an element of risk pooling at the company level. Basically it covers specialist treatments. From personal experience I can say it is pretty good, and it made a change being treated with a bit of respect by a doctor for a change.

The US system is deeply flawed and is absolutely not an example of a how a private health care system should work. This doesn’t stop UK leftists pointing the finger to the US system when they want to decry privatised health care.

Anyway this is a bit off topic now.

The left have controlled most universities for decades – so he is only being logical.

Target the people who have already been (at least partly) brainwashed.

But there is another factor (that Nick points out) – some college graduates will not do, the people trained in the “hard stuff” for the productive world.

We here at Samizdata are mostly liberal arts graduates (I am myself), but this should not blind us to the truth.

Most of our fellow humanities and social sciences graduates accepted (sometimes without even knowingi it) a lot of leftist stuff at college.

This makes them a better target for a leftist pitch than say the “mid western gas station attendent” seered at by Brian Barry and other collectivist academics.

Still less a skilled factory worker.

“But the nonwhite thing Paul”.

Standard cultural Marxism (the Political Correctness movement) going back to the Frankfurt School.

Target people on the basis of race, gender, sexual orientation (and so on).

Not that the US way is the only way to do it I’m sure. Something where it was an inidvidual plan but compensated by the employer might work (hence the employee could take their plan with them in case of a change of employment status). Just be careful what you wish for.

In summary, if you attempt to achieve political change, it needs to be done gradually, with each step creating more support than resistance.

What, no engineers? I guess they’re all to busy raping Gaia for Halliburton or something.

It gives them the “social libertarianism” that they are so wedded to (even if they often don’t get what this actually means), but it insists on the necessity of at least some – and in the current circumstances of economic crisis – a lot more – libertarianism in economic matters.

So what your saying is give the educated middle class the liberty to sleep with whomever they like whenever they like, ingest, inject or otherwise imbibe whatever substances they want and to work, or not work, at any job, profession, trade or calling that they want, but, and this is the big bit, to take responsibility for their choices.

Hmm.

“I come in peace,” it said, adding after a long moment of further grinding, “take me to your Lizard.”

Ford Prefect, of course, had an explanation for this, as he sat with Arthur and watched the nonstop frenetic news reports on television, none of which had anything to say other than to record that the thing had done this amount of damage which was valued at that amount of billions of pounds and had killed this totally other number of people, and then say it again, because the robot was doing nothing more than standing there, swaying very slightly, and emitting short incomprehensible error messages.

“It comes from a very ancient democracy, you see…”

“You mean, it comes from a world of lizards?”

“No,” said Ford, who by this time was a little more rational and coherent than he had been, having finally had the coffee forced down him, “nothing so simple. Nothing anything like to straightforward. On its world, the people are people. The leaders are lizards. The people hate the lizards and the lizards rule the people.”

“Odd,” said Arthur, “I thought you said it was a democracy.”

“I did,” said ford. “It is.”

“So,” said Arthur, hoping he wasn’t sounding ridiculously obtuse, “why don’t the people get rid of the lizards?”

“It honestly doesn’t occur to them,” said Ford. “They’ve all got the vote, so they all pretty much assume that the government they’ve voted in more or less approximates to the government they want.”

“You mean they actually vote for the lizards?”

“Oh yes,” said Ford with a shrug, “of course.”

“But,” said Arthur, going for the big one again, “why?”

“Because if they didn’t vote for a lizard,” said Ford, “the wrong lizard might get in. Got any gin?”

“What?”

“I said,” said Ford, with an increasing air of urgency creeping into his voice, “have you got any gin?”

“I’ll look. Tell me about the lizards.”

Ford shrugged again.

“Some people say that the lizards are the best thing that ever happened to them,” he said. “They’re completely wrong of course, completely and utterly wrong, but someone’s got to say it.”