Throne-Kissers

I've spent a bit of time this morning puzzling over the meaning of a pretty opaque Jonah Goldberg post. It's my Tuesday timewaster! In it, he responds to Jon Cohn's smart article on the successes of the French health care system and my warning that the size of government isn't particularly determinative of economic growth by trenchantly asserting that, "[m]aybe, just maybe, France and Denmark can handle the systems they have because they have long traditions of sucking-up to the state and throne. Marty Lipset wrote stacks of books on how Canadians and Americans have different forms of government because the Royalist, throne-kissing, swine left America for Canada during the Revolutionary War and that's why they don't mind big government, switched to the metric system when ordered and will wait on line like good little subjects....maybe, just maybe, the reason America doesn't have a sprawling European welfare state is that America isn't Europe. And, unlike some of our liberal friends, Americans don't want to be Europeans."

My first thought is that that's a very serious, thoughtful, argument which has never been made in such detail or with such care. I smell a book contract! My second thought was: Huh? I'm not sure exactly what Goldberg thinks he's responding to, but it isn't anything Cohn or I wrote. For instance, apply his argument to Cohn's point on health care systems and it falls apart. America has multiple health care systems, some government-run, some privately administered. In every case, Americans -- who presumably aren't the "throne-kissing swine" of Goldberg's fevered imagination --report higher levels of satisfaction in the public programs. For instance, the elderly report 61 percent satisfaction with their health care system, which is government-run Medicare. The non-elderly, non-poor are about half as happy, with only 34 percent reporting themselves satisfied. Even the poor, who largely rely on Medicaid, free clinics, and the like are at 41 percent, higher than those of us in private care. Butwaitthere'smore!

The only truly socialized system in America is the Veteran's Health Administration. And surveys repeatedly and routinely find that they too are more satisfied with their care than those left in the private market. And anxious as I am to hear Jonah explain how our nation's veterans are just a bunch of toady throne-kissers, I'm not exactly holding my breath. So this one's back to you, Jonah: If America's culture renders us completely unsuitable for public health care systems, how come the vast numbers of Americans currently in public health systems seem so happy about it?

Also at Tapped.