To give a quotation relevant to the theme of this parable: “Men have been taught that the highest virtue is not to achieve, but to give. Yet one cannot give that which has not been created. Creation comes before distribution–or there will be nothing to distribute. The need of the creator comes before the need of any possible beneficiary.”

- Ayn Rand, “The Soul of an Individualist,” For the New Intellectual.

Of course, what a creator needs is not a government research grant, special treatment, or protection; it’s independence (i.e. freedom).

For those interested, the Ayn Rand Lexicon has recently come online for free (aynrandlexicon.com). Also, if you are a medical student, see The Lucidicus Project (Lucidicus.org).

From where I sit in outpatient psychiatry, I don’t see any monopoly. Legally allowed to provide psychotherapy services or something purported to be so are psychologists, social workers, liscense professional counselors, marriage and family counselors, substance abuse counselors, gambling couselors, nurse therapists, pastoral counselors, and more. Legally allowed to prescribe the drugs that I prescribe are other liscensed allopathic physicians, osteopaths, nurse practitioners, and now, in 2 states, psychologists–who have no natural science/biology background and yet are allowed this authority after a series of weekend classes! I am 100% dependent on my ability to provide a more valuable service than this extensive competition.

I would have some “rent protection” if I were doing inpatient work but that is not my calling.

I don’t mind the competition. It keeps me on my toes. I pity the patients who are exploited and harmed when they overestimate the assurance provided by the state sanction of liscensure–in some cases it is liscensure of the ignorant by the ignorant. It does keep me on my toes.

I resent however when people play the “monopoly” card because it simply doesn’t exist for me.

It is also why I, along with most psychiatrists in the outpatient setting, don’t feel or can’t afford to indulge a sense of ownership of the system and obligation to make it work or everyone. For every one of us there are 10 competitors (many of whom mislead the more limited patients into thinking that they are actually physicians) who rather than trying to give something back, are making every effort to skim the cream right off our backs, leaving us with nothing but the uninsured, Medicare, and Medicaid if are mindless of what is going on.

1) Analogies do not make for logically coherent arguments. Delgado is right, this is not a parallel description of the current state of medical economics.

2) Libs claim that their utopian schemes don’t intend to enslave doctors as your fictional witch doctor was. You instead need to illustrate how their utopian schemes will make slaves of everyone, through higher taxes, longer lines, and increased rules and regulations.

mike