How Government Solved the Health-Care Crisis

A concise explanation of how people once took care of each other, voluntarily, and how the state screwed that up

This is one of my favorite short videos on the topic of mutual aid, and how government intervention all but demolished it.

Here is the essay upon which the video is based.

This is really important history for advocates of liberty to understand. You won’t hear about it in most schools, and very few of the people around us have ever heard about it. Which goes a long way to explaining why so many believe that things like the welfare state are necessary.

P.S. Just in case this video ever gets taken down (yes, I have a copy on my computer), here is the bibliography from the essay, also listed on YouTube:

David T. Beito. "The 'Lodge Practice Evil' Reconsidered: Medical Care Through Fraternal Societies, 1900-1930." (unpublished)

David T. Beito. "Mutual Aid for Social Welfare: The Case of American Fraternal Societies." Critical Review, Vol. 4, no. 4 (Fall 1990).

David Green. Reinventing Civil Society: The Rediscovery of Welfare Without Politics. Institute of Economic Affairs, London, 1993.

David Green. Working Class Patients and the Medical Establishment: Self-Help in Britain from the Mid-Nineteenth Century to 1948. St. Martin's Press, New York, 1985.

David Green & Lawrence Cromwell. Mutual Aid or Welfare State: Australia's Friendly Societies. Allen & Unwin, Sydney, 1984.

P. Gosden. The Friendly Societies in England, 1815-1875. Manchester University Press, Manchester, 1961.

P. Gosden. Self-Help: Voluntary Associations in the 19th Century. Batsford Press, London, 1973. Albert Loan. "Institutional Bases of the Spontaneous Order: Surety and Assurance." Humane Studies Review, Vol. 7, no. 1, 1991/92.

Leslie Siddeley. "The Rise and Fall of Fraternal Insurance Organizations." Humane Studies Review, Vol. 7, no. 2, 1992. S.

David Young. The Rule of Experts: Occupational Licensing in America. Cato Institute, Washington, 1987.