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From: gene@batman.UUCP (Gene Mutschler)
Newsgroups: net.politics.theory
Subject: Re: Credentials, State vs. private
Message-ID: <177@batman.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 4-Sep-85 12:52:15 EDT
Article-I.D.: batman.177
Posted: Wed Sep  4 12:52:15 1985
Date-Received: Fri, 6-Sep-85 05:13:10 EDT
References: <152@gargoyle.UUCP> <28200053@inmet.UUCP> <1763@psuvax1.UUCP>
Organization: Burroughs Austin Research Center, TX
Lines: 22

[P. Berman again looks at white and sees black]

> What we see here is a naive belief in the selfregulatory powers.
>  ...Yesterday there was an article in NYT
> about widespread incompetience among doctors.  Since no centralized
> system of credencial exists, it is extremally difficult to prevent
> incompetient (at time fraudulent) doctors to be in the profession.

Wrong again.  These doctors are still in practice precisely because
there are credentialling systems.  In a free society, where anyone
is free to practice medicine and where competitive pressures would
cause dissemination of information as to relative competence, the bad
doctors would quickly be forced out of business.  Under the current
system, all one has to do is pass the exam once, and one is a doctor
for life.  What little state review there is is hesitant to take away
a doctor's licence because that would presumably deprive that doctor
of his/her livelihood.  The free market would not be so sympathetic.
-- 
Gene Mutschler             {ihnp4 seismo ctvax}!ut-sally!batman!gene
Burroughs Corp.
Austin Research Center     cmp.barc@utexas-20.ARPA
(512) 258-2495