Please don't take HN threads on generic ideological tangents. They never lead anywhere new.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Quite some red-herrings in this line of questioning. He never made reference to "profit is bad."

Saying that medical care for our fellow humans should not be for-profit implies that the individual values human life over our current constructed system of exchange. There are hundreds of thousands of people in the U.S. who would be bankrupted instantly if they were to suffer a significant accident that required prolonged medical attention. People that would otherwise continue to live productive and meaningful lives who would be regulated to abject poverty, destroying their potential.

The argument for socialized healthcare is simple; we have the resources to do it successfully and it costs less[1][2] and is more efficient than our current model. The only thing propping up our system is the millions of dollars of lobbying money from the insurance firms.

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[1] http://www.pnhp.org/news/2014/november/implementing-a-univer... [2]https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-07-30/study-med...

> Why shouldnt fire fighting be for-profit

Because fires pose an undue risk to entire regions, not individuals.

Because the pricing mechanism is excessively unfair to individuals.

Because no one's life should be at risk because they don't have access to financial resources.

Individuals should be (and are, generally) free to start for-profit fire fighting businesses, but these should not seek to displace existing infrastructure.

> Why do you believe non-profit means it has to be provided by government?

That wasn't said or implied in the parent post, but the government _is_ our collective resource. By the people, for the people. It is we, the people, whose lives and property are put in danger by fires. The most effective way of grouping people's interest collectively in history has been through governance. Non-profit fire fighting may be viable, but it's better that we collectively work to keep our collection safe.

> Why do you believe profit is bad?

It depends entirely on the context. When people's lives are at stake profits incentivize cruel and unusual behavior from those incentivized to reap the reward.