Off Topic — HabitableZone

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re: He makes good points
TB — (archived)

He mentioned quite a few statistics that did not apply only to himself or the wealthy.

I'll throw in another statistic: Polls on health care show that over three-quarters of Americans are satisfied with their health care. I have seen numbers as high as 90 percent.

A typical poll is here. I direct your attention to questions 20 and 21.

Note the same weird discrepancy on this issue as the one pointed out by Henninger: Most people think they're doing all right (77 percent are satisfied with their own health care), but the rest of the country must be in deep trouble (only 38 percent are satisfied with health care in the country as a whole.) That's a factor of TWO.

You think this is a coincidence?

One statistic is based on what the respondent knows from his own experience and direct knowledge of himself and the people around him.

The other statistic is based on what's being pumped into their heads by people who firmly believe the government should directly control all health care, among many other things. I would be fascinated to see one of these polls broken down by where people get their news.

This discrepancy is probably true of most of the other "crises" that make the front pages.

You can skip the following if you want:

I know people are getting sick of this, but I will repeat it until people get it: it's about the power.

There's no political power to be had in "good news." There's no power to be had in contentment, prosperity, and success.

There is power to be had in envy, fear, anger, and discontent.

If some company was shoving out scare statistics on cancer, heart disease, and every other health problem including flat feet, and then touted their expensive Super Vitamins as the ONLY solution for all of them, every alarm bell in people's heads would be going off. Why isn't this ever true of government?

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