I must say, I thought VDH’s column yesterday was one of his best. Especially:
Again, health care is expensive because Americans, with some good reason, have decided that the ancient tragic view — we all age and break down, and pay for the sins of our 20s and 30s in our 50s and 60s — can at last be replaced by the therapeutic promise of vigor and health into our 80s.
I’d quibble with that “with some good reason,” though. Perhaps “the ancient tragic view” is some innate personality feature, but I’ve never taken any other, and simply can’t understand why people want to live into their eighties.
You run around for a few years having as much fun as your circumstances allow. Then you get married and have kids. You give the kids as much as you can to get them started in life. After that you’re pretty superfluous; and, as VDH says, you start paying for the follies of youth. After about sixty it’s pretty much diminishing returns, far as I can see.
If these humongous health insurance premiums I’m paying every month are caused by whining dotards demanding hip replacements, I say bring on the Soylent Green.