Democrats don’t seem to understand this and just want to throw money at our systemic problems. I’m in favor of some form of wealth redistribution in the form of UBI, but so much of our system can only be fixed by controlling costs, and that needs to come first. Rent is one, health care another.

Japan has private insurance, but all procedures have a standard, fixed cost associated with them. As a result, their costs are low because the system has no room for middlemen and the enormous waste and economic inefficiency they create.

Democrats have (mostly) united to force the issue with the ACA subsidies. But they want to continue making enormous payments to prop up a broken system that is structurally incapable of controlling costs. The shutdown fight may be the right move in the short term, provided when people go to enroll they experience sticker shock and learn that Republicans are striving to double their premiums), but it can’t be the long-term solution.

If you pay everyone, it will just be slurped up by the rent-seekers and middlemen our system is built around.