SLIPPERY ROCK — Slippery Rock University and Grove City College are 10 miles apart, but they are further apart in terms of politics.

A panel of professors Monday night at SRU explored these differences regarding economics before about 300 students.

Professors from SRU argued for government intervention in the economy while professors from Grove City argued for no government intervention. The panel was hosted by the SRU Young Americans for Liberty.

Grove City was represented by Jeffrey Herbener, chair of the economic department, and Shawn Ritenour, an economics professor. SRU was represented by David Culp, chair of SRU's School of Business, and Frederick Tannery, a business professor.

The panel touched on a variety of subjects, including health care costs. Tannery said the high costs are a side effect of the widespread use of third party payer insurance.

“In this world, there's no incentive to control costs,” Tannery said.

But he did have a suggestion: “Maybe we should go to a single payer system, like Canada.”

Tannery said a single payer system has advantages, such as lowered costs and service for everyone, but it has disadvantages, such as it is a bureaucracy and is inherently political.

Herbener said he agreed with Tannery about health care costs going up. He noted that about 80 percent of health care expenditures are paid through a third party. However, Herbener disagreed with Tannery on the single payer system. He said government subsidies in health care should be eliminated.

“Let us as patients and doctors … settle these matters,” Herbener said.

As for poor patients, Herbener said their health care should be done through charity, with doctors providing pro bono care as was done before World War II.

Additionally, Herbener said raising federal taxes would be harmful to the economy.

“Taxation is coercive extraction from the state,” he said.

Herbener said raising taxes would harm the economy because it would take money away from the businesses and consumers and give it to the government.

Tannery said the debate should not be about taxes versus no taxes, it should be about what the government spends tax funds on. “It's really about how you finance government,” he said.

When asked if economic deregulation was the cause of the 2008 financial crisis, Tannery said the issue is complicated.

“There's not a simple yes or no answer to that question,” he said.

However, he said the answer more likely is closer to yes than no. He said the main causes of the crisis were banks giving subprime mortgages to people who could not afford them, federally backed Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac buying delinquent home mortgages, and the Federal Reserve lowering interest rates.

But Ritenour disagreed: “The free market was not responsible at all.” He said the cause of the crisis was mal-investment in the housing market, which was influenced by the federal government.

Ritenour said that contrary to some opinions, the free market is “highly regulated” by the people who spend money in it.

“They're not regulated by the state, but they are regulated,” Ritenour said.

When asked about whether economic programs under Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, such as the 2009 federal stimulus and Cash for Clunkers, helped economic recovery, Ritenour said those programs likely prolonged economic suffering. “We're still living with the consequences,” he said.

Culp said he partially agreed with Ritenour, but said the stimulus was necessary due to the threat of an economic depression.

“If my house is on fire, I'm going to throw everything I can at it and worry about water damage later,” Culp said.

Ritenour disagreed with Culp about the stimulus.

“But if a house is burning down, we don't want to throw more gas on the fire,” he said.

Ultimately, to fix the economy, Culp said businesses have to be willing to invest in it. “Confidence needs to be restored into the economy,” Culp said.

He said the only way to do that is to reduce the federal deficit. To do that, he said Democrats and Republicans in the federal government need to stop bickering and move to the center of the political spectrum.

“There has to be a mix someplace there,” Culp said.