Check Your Premises

Brad wonders why we pay so much money for such crappy health care. I think he's wondering rhetorically, as it were, but I do think it's worth spelling out an answer. Which is that to the extent that "we" do indeed tolerate this state of affairs, it's because "we" derive positive value from the suffering of the underclass: the existence of an enormous number of miserable poor people is the sole remaining component of the American dream.