What about the perspective that the root, underlying problem is the government’s interference with or ability to manipulate the natural laws of economics and capitalism. First, on a specific subject, you reference multiple times the ballooning costs of healthcare. There is no doubt that the American healthcare system is broken. One can make a very good argument that the healthcare industry is the most broken major industry in the United States and that it is the largest and most immediately pressing issue facing our country. However, out of all the major industries in the US, besides military related markets, the federal government is most heavily involved in healthcare. CMS (Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services), a federal and state government ran entity, essentially sets all of the rules and regulations that players in the healthcare industry must follow. The result is that the healthcare industry does not operate under the natural laws of economics and capitalism. Things that are commonplace in other markets, such as the Home Entertainment market (TV’s) example you gave as a comparison, do not exist in healthcare. Things like price competition, price elasticity, price transparency, and basic rules of supply and demand do not apply to the healthcare industry because of the artificial manipulation executed by the government. The result is a disastrous industry in desperate need of disruption and upheaval due to an enormous contribution to the national deficit, corruption, poor outcomes, and a growing concern that America is so sick that healthcare will bankrupt our country. The current mixture of government subsidized and commercial healthcare is unsustainable. There are valid arguments for either a 100% government ran healthcare industry or a 100% free market healthcare industry. In my opinion, for government to effectively execute a “Medicare for All” type program, it would need to take over and operate healthcare from top to bottom, including facilities that provide healthcare like hospitals and physician practices. The reason for this is because if Medicare for All only puts the government in control of reimbursing and paying for care, then it is likely that there will be a mass exodus of capital from the healthcare industry due to a lack of financial incentive. Also, in the unlikely scenario that the government did take over healthcare from top to bottom, the likely result would be even worse than where we are now. One only needs to look at the Veterans’ Affairs (VA) program for an example of the government operating a healthcare program from service to payment. The VA system is Exhibit A on government’s inability to run a healthcare program effectively. The better option, I believe, is the free market approach. If government peeled away layers of regulations and left only critical consumer protection laws that ensured patient safety, the result will be like that of other less regulated industries, like home entertainment. Healthcare consumers are more informed and knowledgable than ever. If companies are forced to compete on transparency, quality of service, outcomes, and price without the comforts of guaranteed tax payer revenue, then the healthcare industry will naturally weed out under performers. The result will be better prices, better population health outcomes, innovative new technologies and business models, and a massive decrease in the federal deficit. On a more macro viewpoint, you make the point that when capitalism grows too large and powerful then its benefits soon pale in comparison to its costs. I would make the point that the root cause of this phenomenon is not money hungry capitalists. Capitalists are supposed to be money hungry by definition. They react according to their environment with the sole purpose of positively affecting their bottom line. It’s my opinion that the root cause of capitalism morphing “from a liquid to a solid”, as you say, is government involvement. The government has put itself in a position of power in industry. Through laws, regulation, and subsidies the government wields the power to heavily impact these capitalists’ bottom lines. This wouldn’t necessarily be a huge issue if the government wielded this power with an unbiased and uninfluenced hand. However, the government has had a “For Sale” sign on this power for a long time. As a result capitalists, doing what they instinctively do, have purchased this power through lobbyists and monetary contributions to campaigns and “charities”. Circling back to healthcare, the major players in the pharmaceutical, medical device, and hospital system industries have entrenched themselves in government through these tactics, basically ensuring that the companies they represent survive and thrive because the politicians they have influenced will enact laws and policies that are conducive to their clients’ interests. The result is that smaller players (biotech startups, medical device inventors, smaller hospital systems, physician groups, etc.), who are unable to pay for lobbyists to manage government policy for them, are left to battle artificial, inclement market conditions that are dictated by their much larger competitors. This all stifles competition and innovation, and this occurs in every industry that the government has the power to influence. I believe that the correct thing for the government to do would be to remove its power to influence the free market by doing a massive scale back on the laws and regulations that provide it. With that power out of the picture, capitalists will no longer be incentivized to influence politicians with lobbyists, the government can return to governing in a neutral, unbiased manner, and the rules of the free market can take hold again, capitalism returns to its “liquid form”, and the nation can reap the benefits that it has realized in the past. Dare to dream…