I highly recommend The Making of the Atomic Bomb. I listened to the audiobook last year. It starts with the scientific advances, beginning in the late 19th century, and continues up through the achievement of a chain reaction and the dropping of the bombs on Japan. The final part of the book, detailing the eyewitness accounts of the bombings, is the most harrowing thing I’ve ever listened to.
Some, if not most, of this is a result of the insurance system. The insurance companies only pay x% of any given item, therefore the hospitals have to jack prices through the roof to collect enough to survive.
The problem with our healthcare system is that too much money goes to drug companies, medical device makers, and insurance companies and not enough makes it to the people actually providing the care. Its a bit more complicated than that, I'd admit, but that's the TLDR version.
I've floated this idea around but what I found out was that it's against our state's laws to have such open contracts. Changing the state law would be difficult (road builders have a big voice in state government). We also, by law, have to accept the lowest bid that meets specs, even if that means higher prices in the long run. Championing accepting higher bids would be difficult come election time. The attack ads would read, "Politician A wants to give his buddies a sweet-heart deal at the expense of the taxpayer."
That estimate is based on the fact that since the last true independent company in our area was bought out by the big guys, prices for all subsequent jobs rose 15% - 20%. I'm all for business making as much profit as possible. I'm not against profit, I'm against predatory pricing that limits competition.
As a Republican elected official in a southeastern state, I have a front-row seat to what this article points at.
The road construction industry used to be a great opportunity for small business people to create for themselves a substantial income. These days, all the companies in our area are owned by conglomerates, backed by billion dollar financial institutions. If you were to risk a million or two or an asphalt plant, they will undercut your prices till you go bankrupt, then inflate their prices once again. The two companies in our area will bid on all of our projects, but it's clear they are in cahoots when it comes to their pricing.
By our estimates, the taxpayers are overpaying by at least 15% - 20%. In my mind, this robs others of opportunity and transfers wealth from tax-paying citizens to billion dollar companies.
No one points this out because the road builders give a lot to politicians. Go against them, and they'll spend enough to have the public label you a RINO which, in this neck of the woods, can get you booted from office.
I've wished for some time that someone could create a modular asphalt plant that can be packed up on trucks and taken to wherever the job site is. I think companies like this could help regulate prices and make a lot of money.