Reply #9: How stupid do you have to be to think that three competing fire departments

[eridani]

--cost a city less than one public fire department?

Markets are good for only one thing--providing more of things you want more of, like computer memory or restaurant cuisine selections. They suck at dealing with things you want less of, like house fires and sickness. If a town with one cardiac specialty care group has another competing group set up shop, are you silly enough to think that people are going to suddenly start having twice as many heart attacks?

Please stop with the idiocy of confusing consumer goods with public goods. In order to have iPads, you need roads and schools, but roads ans schools exist perfectly well without iPads.