Freedom Line Blog

Unless they’ve got a job at a Washington think tank, it’s difficult for conservatives (a tribe best known for working hard and supporting their family) to find the time to rebut every piece of misinformation coming from the left and their allies in the mainstream media. Thus, when you hear about the wonders of socialized medicine in Canada or Great Britain, you may instinctively know that the claims are inaccurate but not immediately be able to rebut them. This is why God created Thomas Sowell.

In his newest column, the Sage of Palo Alto takes aim at some of the most pernicious health care fallacies. Consider for instance, his rebuke to misinformation on American life expectancy:

… the media spin is that various countries with government-run medical systems have life expectancies that are as long as ours, or longer. That is very clever as media spin, if you don’t bother to stop and think about it.

Author Sally Pipes did bother to stop and think about it in her book, “The Truth About ObamaCare.” She points out that medical care is just one of the factors in life expectancy.

She cites a study by Professors Ohsfeldt and Schneider at the University of Iowa, which shows that, if you leave out people who are victims of homicide or who die in automobile accidents, Americans live longer than people in any other Western country.

Doctors do not prevent homicides or car crashes. In the things that doctors can affect, such as the survival rates of cancer patients, the United States leads the world.

Sowell’s ability to pierce liberal shibboleths through sheer empiricism is second to none. Read the whole column and then consider picking up a copy of his “Economic Facts and Fallacies” to further build your arsenal for your next encounter with a liberal friend.