“Job lock” is the left’s newest buzzword to apologize for the detrimental impact of ObamaCare.
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Job lock refers to a situation in which a worker stays at a job that he or she despises, but can’t leave because of the benefits that job provides. Of course, almost everyone suffers from job lock to some extent since most of us rely on the income that our jobs provide to make ends meet.
The obvious reality that individuals must be productive in order to survive and thrive never seems to penetrate the utopian fantasies of leftist economists who seem to think that the proverbial horn of plenty can be created if we just wish it into existence.
Nevertheless, job lock does seem to run counter to the American Dream, i.e. the ability to build the life that we want to lead. But if the left were honest, they would admit that it is big government that has created job lock, transforming us from a nation of entrepreneurs into a nation of employees dependent on a “job” and easily assaulted by the waves of economic vicissitude.
Before WWII, most employers did not provide health insurance to their workers. Families bought catastrophic insurance for major illnesses, but paid for routine care out of their own pockets. Thus, individuals had an incentive to keep their health care costs low since they were the ones paying the bills.
That all changed thanks to FDR and the wage and price controls of WWII.
During the war, the federal government imposed price controls on a litany of products, including labor. Due to the tight labor market (millions of men had left the labor market to fight the war), employers had a tough time attracting workers. The War Labor Board determined that fringe benefits such as sick leave and health insurance did not count as wages, so employers began offering these benefits in addition to monetary compensation.
This practice has been with us ever since.
The result is that individuals and families no longer had an incentive to keep their health care costs low since they no longer paid the bills.
Things only got worse in the 1960s with the advent of Medicare and Medicaid in the 1960s. Since the government was footing the bill, the individuals participating in these programs had no incentive whatsoever to keep costs low.
The accession of third party payers has eliminated price transparency in the health care market. The reason that health care is so expensive is not because the market has failed, but that constant government intervention has crippled the price mechanism and destroyed real competition.
The left is now using every possible pretext, no matter how far-fetched, to make the situation even worse by further insinuating the state into the health care sector.
Instead of admitting defeat when ObamaCare ultimately fails, the left will blame the market and agitate for a true single-payer system.
Libertarian spokesman Harry Browne used to say “Government is good at only one thing. It knows how to break your legs, hand you a crutch, and say, see if it weren’t for the government, you couldn’t walk.”
When it comes to healthcare, the left has kneecapped the market as efficiently as any mafia hit man.
Now, they benevolently hand us the crutch of ObamaCare.
The ridiculous notion that ObamaCare “frees” workers from job lock shows how blind the left is to the damage they continue to cause hardworking Americans.