I don't know why I keep making the same kind of typo -- or rather, not checking for the same kind. This is what comes of trying to post on the fly, and not checking your work. Considering the number of times I have berated students for just that sort of thing, I am doubly embarrassed.
But no more! Care and craftsmanship shall be the hallmarks of all my future posts!
Concerning your argument: exactly. I thought the Reason piece elegantly showed why the fabled efficiency of the market works very well for managing social policy, so long as you discount real human needs. The absurdity was revealed in the notion that the genetically healthy are not obligated to do anything to help the less fortunate. This is an argument that is only appealing so long as you (a) never wind up a victim of a bankruptcy-producing medical condition yourself and (b) can view everyone around you with the kind of "them's the breaks" coolness of, well, a moral midget. Of course, most of us cherish a touching faith that we'll continue to inhabit condition (a). And I don't care to speculate about how many of us are cabable of (b).
Posted by B T at May 17, 2001 04:51 PM