Rather than entrepreneurship, what most jobs in that portion of the private sector dealing with the public actually demand is servility; that mock rote wherein tens of millions of automatons make pretend they worship the ground the customer walks on. This confidence game is designed to lubricate the ego from the time the one who "is always right" enters until the largesse is deposited in the register. We are important when we spend.
When we realize that it is to these butt-heads that the sale on "health" care must be made, it should be obvious that appeals to the "common" good are worse than useless. Given a choice, what Prince, or Princess, would voluntarily relinquish the royal coach for a free transfer on the subway?
Yet, this is the choice the American public is being asked to make. The choice between "private" and "public" health care is a choice between "royal" and "common".
Even if from a patriotic conscience a consumer should dutifully compare public facilities with private, what would they see?
Have you ever been to the Department of Transportation? Visited Small Claims Court lately? Had a hassle causing a trip to Immigration or the I.R.S.? Would you trade "private" health care for what we give "our best" young people at the VA? Do you like long lines, crowded and filthy waiting rooms, and the barest expense being made for your comfort?
That's what "public" means in the minds of the American consumer; a being used to being fawned upon, and who believes that he or she is "always right".
As is their wont, the "stick in the mud crowd" gets it completely wrong when they decry waste in the public sector. The problem is not that government wastes, it's that it doesn't waste enough. Where the rubber meets the road, and the general public comes into contact with government provided services, parsimonious efficiency insures a drab presentation. Because every penny is frugally doled out when providing for "public" facilities, the "Kings" in the American public quite understandably prefer to be serviced privately.
Because the costs of health care are deducted from total compensation before getting paid, Mr. and Mrs. Saps are led to believe these services are free, or delude themselves that the coverage is being provided for a nominal weekly deduction. This is consistent with standard merchandising. Rather than understanding that we are paying too much for private health product (One must imagine what the situation would be if we received our total compensation and then had to pay our private insurance out of pocket), we view employer "provided" coverage the same way we respond to "bonus" packs at the supermarket: We think we are getting something for nothing- our royal due.
"Madmen", as do all good marketeers, understand this perversion better than idealists. They understand that you "have to spend a dollar to make a dollar"; they understand that waste is essential to profit. The more important a mark is made to feel, the more likely he or she will be to happily throw their money away.
Barack has great stuff, but he is going to strike out just like Hillary did. He doesn't have the right book on the batters he is throwing to. His mound is not erected on a firm pitch of patriotic citizenship; rock solid in its support for raising common standards. It is a mire where fuzzy consciousness is bogged down with the forlorn fantasies of the alchemist.
We wear hats that symbolize the roles we play in the master narratives imposed on our personal dialog (Policy holder, citizen, patient) The President is appealing to the wrong one. It's the alchemist that provides the golden topper that best fits the American health consumer.
Our crown.
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