The latest buzz

The hot topic in the blogs this week is healthcare. The general idea (at least among the liberal wacko blogs that I read) is that while competitive markets work well for other industries, our version seems to pale in comparison to other (of course not all) countries that use the evil power of socialism to heal people. I don't really want to rant about this for too long, but essentially we pay more per capita, a higher percentage of our GDP, have a slightly lower life expectancy and so forth than several other countries (numbers and post here). I guess I just find it interesting that we're so taken with the idea that our superpowerness makes us ultra-super-supreme in all matters, that we can't seem to stomach the idea that other, less purely capitalist societies manage to meet some basic needs better than we do. I guess all I'm saying is, clearly other countries manage to give their citizens decent healthcare at a reasonable price, why can't we? Our national superpowers have to be good for something. Fafblog says it much more oddly than I ever could.