Going over the Cliff

[robkelk]

Here's an intriguing quote from a recent blog post ( http://www.pelicancrossing.net/netwars/ ... cuses.html ):

Many of my British friends are baffled as to why nationalized health insurance is such a contentious issue in the US. One answer is that it's about class: if health insurance is a perk of a "good job", having it provided proves you're a high achiever. A second, however, is that big employers know that losing access to health benefits is such a potent threat that it keeps employees in line. In other words, health insurance tied to employment has turned the American middle class into peasants. It is horrifyingly feudal - and some business interests are quite happy with that.

"The thing is," someone English said to me this week, "our government evolved. Yours was actually *designed* to work like this." That's not really quite true: no one intended to design severe dysfunction.

--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012