Victims of our own success

Why is healthcare reform arousing the passions of so many people and diverting the attention of the legislative and the executive branches of our federal government at a time when we are beseeched by a plenitude of severe economic problems? Radical Keynesians would naturally be enamored with any scheme that proposes to pour a trillion dollars of fresh cash in the economic engine. They believe that spending is spending---whether the government throws the future taxpayers' money on waterboarding or heart transplants, in a recession we need more. Fortunately, such extremists are in a minority, even in the midst of today's economic slump.

More sensible people want immediate reform because they recognize that the high cost of healthcare in the United States is an added drag on the economy, especially at a time when it is not in its best shape. Our artificially restricted markets for drugs and health services slow the creation of new jobs by small businesses and diminish the competitiveness of our products in the global market. But most of all, the heat is on in Congress these days because we have been spoiled by our own amazing economic success. We take our unprecedented prosperity as a natural state to a point that we cannot tolerate the fact that a small part of our population is not insured. Never mind that all Americans were in the same position not that long ago.

In an age of air-conditioning, microwaves, high-speed internet, Nintendo, GPS, iPods, BlackBerries (not the fruity kind), Blue Rays, Kindles, Twittering, snowblowers, and so many other comforts, the words for which did not even exist a generation ago, a culture of instant gratification has evolved that sees unmet needs and unfulfilled wants as unacceptable. In a discussion on the ethics of redistribution, the French political economist Bertrand de Jouvenel drew our attention to this peculiar transformation of sentiments accompanying economic progress: Just as certain wealthy persons of the past had seen their riches as a scandal in the face of the prevailing poverty in the current environment, the widely spread riches of today make us see people without healthcare coverage as a sign of intolerable poverty. It seems that the curse of capitalism is in its capacity to turn formerly unknown luxuries into necessities.