LIBERTARIANS NEED A TAD MORE EXPERIENCE IN THE REAL WORLD

(h/t Roy Edroso)

Their faith in the Free Market Fairy would be touchingly naive if their horrible economic ideas weren't so widely accepted.  Here's a great example of ivory tower ignorance from the Right:

Some proposals, like the one put forth by Cato Institute Health Policy Director Michael Cannon, focus heavily on clearing the health system's existing thicket of regulations and subsidies to create much more individual autonomy throughout the market. In a 2009 paper, "Yes, Mr. President: A Free Market Can Fix Health Care," Cannon laid out a plan for converting Medicare into a voucher system (he now favors Social Security-style direct payments to enrollees), ending state-based monopolies on both insurance and clinician licensing, capping federal spending on Medicaid through block grants, and eliminating the tax preference for employer-sponsored health care.

Eliminating that tax preference, which since World War II has allowed employers to purchase health coverage for employees on a tax advantaged basis, would actually result in a substantial tax cut, Cannon argues counter-intuitively. If employers cashed out the amount they now pay for health insurance, workers with family coverage would see an average compensation increase of $11,000.

In the real world, the money the employers save would more likely be tucked away in the Cayman Islands instead of finding its way into paychecks.