200th Post Or All Posts Are The Same

I apologize to loyal readers who have previously read this discussion.

Rand distinguished between want and need.

I need to eat. I need to sleep. I need protection from the cold. Need is primitive.

I want a car. I want a simpler life. I want nice things. I want love. I want success. Want is secondary.

Americans want. They do not need.

Sam sent me this article by Malcolm Gladwell. It is another cry for universal health care. Gladwell argues well. But he is wrong.

Gladwell and universal health care supporters fail to recognize the difference between want and need.

I broke my wrist in a football game. It was the fourth quarter with thirty seconds to play. I did not want to come out of the game. The bone was protruding, and the official made me leave the field. I was (am) a stupid young kid.

Besides a broken leg, it was my most expensive injury. But I wanted to play football. I wanted my wrist fixed correctly. There is no justice in making the cheerleaders' parents pay for my wants. It was my decision to break my wrist and my family internalized those costs.

I have no sympathy for the people discussed by Gladwell. They decided teeth and health were not important. They wanted something else. Do they regret those decisions? Yes. But why should a person who made different decisions pay for those regrets?

Gladwell fails to see it is not about moral hazards or externalities but about right and wrong. It is wrong to force people to pay for my stupidity. It is wrong to steal from a healthy person to give to a sick person. It is right for me to pay for my football injuries.

(An entrepreneur will create a new financial instrument in the next ten years that will revolutionize health care, if the government stays out of their way.)