The Gap

The Canadian Supreme Court just declared the country's health care regime cannot be squared with basic human rights. Many citizens have to wait for long periods while sick and in pain, and cannot (officially) go outside the system to seek a cure. This ruling displeased egalitarian Canadians such as Prime Minister Paul Martin who pledged "we're not going to have a two-tier health-care system in this country."

Think about this. What concerns Martin is not that everyone be guaranteed good, much less excellent, care. He knows that's not possible. So what he concentrates on is making sure those who try to get better than what's available are pulled back down.

This is an essential problem with people who are more concerned about the gap than the problem. Last week The New York Times had a major piece on how the richest in the U.S. are richer than ever. That sounded good to me, but apparently it's not supposed to be, since it increases the gap between top and bottom. It's better that the rich have less and everything else be the same, if the gap is what matters.

Being richer should be advantageous, with no apologies. This creates incentives to work hard and be creative. While I understand worrying about those at the bottom, and making sure (based on whatever system you think works best) no one falls too low, I don't understand people who focus negatively on how well people do at the top. Maybe someone should teach the gapsters this isn't a zero sum game.