Hey, If Policy and Planning Is Hard, Let’s Try Magic!
There is an argument going on about Obama’s and Clinton’s health care proposals. Clinton is for a mandate, where everyone would be required to buy insurance — similar to how auto insurance works now. Obama is (or has been — he may be changing his tune) against a mandate.
The discussion has been somewhat heated and from what I’ve read, I may be on the pro-mandate side, at least as a question of economics. But this argument from Reihan Salam has got to be the stupidest thing I’ve read about the issue to date:
The ongoing revolution in the biosciences makes these questions mostly moot. We are arguing about building a coercive apparatus to solve a social problem that won’t exist in the same form for very long. But of course that coercive apparatus will never go away.
Ah yes, the magic thinking of the utopian futurist. Technology will save us, real soon now! My white ass it will. There may be some biotech miracles in the near future, but you know what Reihan? They’re going to cost a lot of money.
In fact, there have been many “revolutions in the biosciences” already: heart transplants. Gene therapy and genetics. MRIs. Advances in surgery. Advances in drug research. But very few people can afford these things if they need them.
And that’s why the question of funding (semi-) universal insurance with a mandate is an important one. But magical thinking doesn’t help solve it. So you and your little friends (and your transhumanist pals and their imaginary friends) go outside and play while the grown ups talk about politics, okay?
