Liberals often miss the good effects of Capitalism, therefore we must train them in knowledge of how capitalism benefits them.

I take three specific lines of the medical industry, or rather sisters to it.

They are eye glasses, dentists, and pharmacies. These three are integral to the medical industry, and yet... they are these least red-taped, the least subsidized, and yet also the the most capitalistic.

This trio can be how we end socialized medicine, if we can educate enough of the liberals out there.

Consider first eye glasses, indeed any eye care at all. When I was six I was hit in the eye by a hard-ball while playing base ball. The guy who hit it was our team super slugger, I am quite sure he is playing major leagues even know, he was always hitting home runs in little league. I had some damage to my retina. In fact I have some scars from this to this day in my eye, makes an interesting series of dots and such, in the form of a comet.

Back then to get eye care you truly had to go to a super specialist. The examinations cost a bit of money, and the equipment was arcane and complicated. Few could work the examinations, let alone make glasses to fit people.

Then there are the glasses themselves, you had a limited set of frames to choose from (by far much less than what you can get from any single maker now!), and if you were unlucky you got... the bottle bottom glasses. Yes those thick ugly glasses that everyone mocked. Surely anyone who grew up in that time, or lived to see them know what I am talking about. And to get your glasses made would cost hundreds of dollars. Your parents would tell you "Do not lose those, we cannot afford another!" in my neighborhood to kids who had glasses. People often preferred to go without glasses, even if it was hard to see, or even a little painful... such was the hatred of glasses back then. I also remember the indents, that never seemed to go away, where the thicker glasses, heavier glasses sat.

Contacts were an option, though you had to add saline solution to them each time you wanted to put them in, they were designed to last about a year, and had issues of their own.

Now glasses are ultra thin, they have ultra-violet protections added, and anti-scratch. They are light, and come in some many shapes, sizes, and colors as to beguile the imagination. Visits to eye doctors takes but a moment, where they can determine what you need, and get it done in as little as 15 minutes. Costs are down tremendously, and even to the point where places advertise a long-term set of glasses for less than what most would pay for a good meal out.

Now let us talk of Dentists, the jape of all painful sounding jokes, they are a place most used to fear. I remember the bulky braces my sister got, and her complaints of how they felt. I also remember there were two options for pain relief when doing your visit, a shot or funny gas. The tools were limited too, and the options for fillings was silver or gold.

I just got done in a modern dentist office. The chair massaged my back while I lay down in it, the xray machine posed no hazards to me, was small and easily used by anyone, the full mouth xray was even easy to understand, and the tools were many and very capable. Some shot water as they cleaned to keep a good view open for the dentist, some whitened my teeth, removing stains that had been there for a few years, I had a choice of fillings, including a natural tooth color filling, and if I had sought something which needed painkillers there was a wide assortment of options, including a pre-treatment so they could give the shots with less pain, and stronger ones than were available when I had my four wisdom teeth pulled at once in the Army seventeen years ago.

The computers they used in their operation were very adaptable, and very up to date, they had excellent lighting, and service was excellent.

But let me talk of pharmacies before I continue on dentistry... we must first describe the differences, then describe WHY the differences.

If you are allergic to Penicillin you used to have limited choices. I remember well these refrigerated medicines which were one of two antibiotics I could take when I was a child. Yes we have come a far ways from there, and this is good. But the medicines do not make up the pharmacies story, it is the pharmacies themselves that make up the story here. I remember well going to the hospital each and every time for medicines, or a drug store. These were the only options, there was nothing else. Prices on medicines were high back then, not just from the cost to make them, but due to limited locations... perhaps I am going to quick on this, but I shall proceed none-the-less. What started bringing the prices down was not laws, was not subsidies, was not the makers of our medicines, but instead it was the final part of the supply chain, the pharmacies that started bringing prices down.

Yes the lowly pharmacy. You see it started with a pharmacy in a Safeway, or a Kroger, or any of the general stores. Who truly knows which was first, nor does it matter. What matters is that instead of five or six annoying places to go, you now had a dozen, then two dozen, then endless options of where to go. The ease of getting medicines kept rising, and those pharmacies which offered lower prices, better service, or both would get more customers. The profits each store saw in these pharmacies also made them seek to obtain a bigger slice of the pie, or just a slice of it!

Now competition brought pharmacies to be better pricing so much, that when Walmart declared for $5.00 generic prescriptions, others followed suit to just keep in the game. Profits might be lower by far, but this is the free market in action.

The same happened with eye glasses, and with dentistry. When no longer was the practice of these trades limited to hospitals, when anyone could compete, and did compete, we saw prices drop and quality (and customer service) go up. \

There are twenty to twenty five big hospitals in Portland Oregon, if there were instead eighty small to medium hospitals we would see an increase in quality, a decrease in cost, and we shall benefit.

Now I challenge you, the reader, can you describe that which others have, of how availability has changed the music industry?