Since the Supreme Court ruling on Obamacare is coming out soon, I thought I'd re-open the thread. One of the big arguments against the bill was that it requires people to buy health insurance meeting specified standards from a private company. I saw a couple of interesting analogues in the news. Take a guess and see if you can tell what they are.
#1 All white males ages 18-45 (OK, it's old, later on it was amended to include black men, too) are required to buy an item. These items were only sold by private businesses. The items had to meet a set of standards and come with a specified list of accessories. People who did not comply were subject to criminal charges leading to fines and/or imprisonment. What's the item?
#2 Property owners are in some cases required to provide a service. The service is sometimes quite expensive to the property owner, and owners often say that the requirements are excessive. Some community members say that the requirements aren't strong enough, and the community suffers as a result. Libertarian-leaners say that the property owners should be able to decide on their own how much of this service should be provided, based on market conditions. What's the service?
