| A recent editorial published by the Wall Street Journal | | | | elegant, not heinously complex. Trial-and-error is for |
| describes Congressional Democrats as waging a quiet | | | | the laboratory, not for determining the fates of |
| war against medical specialists in order to push | | | | human beings. |
| through health reform. "With almost no scrutiny," say | | | | Democrats are not the only social engineers in |
| the authors, "[Democrats] are trying to engineer a | | | | Washington. Republicans are calling just as loudly for |
| cheaper system so that government can afford to | | | | incentives for states and small businesses; incentives |
| buy health care for all-even if the price is fewer and | | | | for prevention and wellness; reforms to end |
| less innovative ways of extending and improving | | | | discrimination on the basis of preexisting conditions. In |
| lives."1 | | | | her book The Forgotten Man, Amity Shlaes discusses |
| Pseudo-scientific "engineering" has become a favorite | | | | how Republican President Herbert Hoover was one |
| technique of today's legislators. Lawmakers believe | | | | of the earliest and biggest social engineers of all. |
| they can improve healthcare by fiddling with | | | | Armed with the false vision that finely-tuned |
| reimbursement percentages, tinkering with formulas, | | | | government programs could cure society's ills |
| and coming up with incentives for activities (and | | | | (because he had once been a successful engineer), |
| constituents) they favor and penalties for those they | | | | he continued to make mistake after mistake until the |
| do not. Either our representatives do not recognize | | | | country slid into the Great Depression.2 |
| that each of their solutions creates a new problem, | | | | If Democrats and Republicans want to fix healthcare, |
| or they know that the effect will be sufficiently | | | | they should start by repealing the convoluted |
| hidden under the complexity of the system. | | | | programs, penalties, and regulations that hamper the |
| Social engineering is the manipulation of people, not | | | | free market. Take the monkey wrenches out of the |
| the protection of rights. It also happens to be an | | | | machine. Disassemble the monstrous contraption that |
| insult to real engineering. Real engineering implies the | | | | you have constructed. |
| use of long-term thinking, not short-range guessing. It | | | | 1 "The War on Specialists" Wall Street Journal, |
| implies a respect for cause and effect, not blind hope. | | | | October 6 2009 |
| Real engineering yields solutions that are simple and | | | | 2 Shlaes, A. The Forgotten Man HarperCollins. |