When Socialism works

In Slate, The Triumph of Socialized Medicine comments on a Washington Monthly report that VA hospitals provided better quality of care than fee-for-service Medicare.

Such news must be anathema to free-market ideologues, but the reasons given make sense; for instance, that long-term strategies pay off for the VA but not for private organisations whose patients may switch. There are many other examples where centralised planning delivers benefits: cell-phone usage abroad led that in the USA because single-technology systems were mandated; a single yellow pages would avoid duplication of resources and the need for businesses to advertise in multiple places; fishing stocks have been reduced by 90% or so.