We have this engine that takes things that start out as luxuries for the rich — indoor plumbing, electricity, televisions, computers, cellphones — and then make them so cheap even the poor can afford them. And that’s what’s been pretty much been banned from the field of medicine since people just don’t like the idea of profit-making where people’s lives are at stake.

Now, we’re not quite to single payer, but it’s starting to seem inevitable. We’re in this weird area where we definitely don’t have a functional free markets — no one even knows the prices of things — but we’re not in complete government control either. But how much longer are we going to tolerate this mess? So there are two directions, head to free markets or to complete socialism. The only thing is, I don’t see anyone in the major two parties really even arguing the first, so all that seems left is to slouch toward the latter at different speeds.

Now, people will die from the decision to go to single payer — millions, potentially — but in ways that don’t make people fill icky, such as cures for certain diseases taking years or decades longer to exist. Because that’s what socialism is — it’s trying to preserve the present at the cost of the future. Socialism is this false guarantee you’ll always be able to live at the current level you’re used to and the price is the destruction of innovation since the profit motive is gone. It’s very attractive to wealthy, fearful nations who are more scared of losing what they have than hopeful of having things even better. And we’re a very wealthy, increasingly scared country.

I wish I had some hopeful words to say how we could stop this slouching toward socialism, but I don’t really have an idea how to make free markets popular again. They have what should be an ironclad record, but they’re scary. So my only comfort is that I’m usually very wrong at predictions.