Some of what we're told is "just part of business" is actually theft.

Because of the economic principles I’ve outlined throughout my website, I’ve come to the understanding that healthcare and other captive markets, morally, are not really any different from theft. I know this sounds harsh, but hear me out:

When you make a purchase as part of a free market, you’re doing so voluntarily. You’re happy to make the purchase. To re-use my example regarding the television marketplace, you find a TV that is a size and quality that you like, at a price that you’re willing to pay, and you happily trade your money for that television. That’s how a free market works. It’s always a voluntary, usually happy, exchange.

But imagine that you are at the ATM withdrawing some cash and someone walks up behind you and demands that you give them all your money or else they’ll shoot you to death. The choice they’re presenting to you is: Either give them your money, or you will die. You have no other options.

How is that any different, on a moral level, than being diagnosed with leukemia and being told you either have to mortgage your house and give them all your money, or you’re going to die? The only real difference is that the hospital didn’t give you the leukemia. But either way, it’s not a happy exchange of money. You don’t really have any choice. It’s not voluntary.

That is not a free-market economy. And when it’s not a free-market economy, it’s theft.

Eliminating captive markets, monopolies, and collusion within marketplaces, will do nothing but strengthen our economy as a whole.

My position on this issue is the position of a true free-market capitalist. But only a free-market capitalist.