‘Insurance is what makes US health care prices so high’

David Goldhill at The Washington Post

“Trying to force the square peg of insurance into the round hole of health care needs has created a terribly inefficient business,” says David Goldhill. Our health insurance model “was designed to pay for emergencies,” but the CDC estimates “90% of America’s health care expenditure goes toward chronic and mental health conditions.” It is “no longer an unexpected need — an insurable risk,” he adds. “It has turned into one of our largest expected needs,” and “expected needs aren’t insurable.”

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‘Tariffs and tariff increases are with us now and will be for the foreseeable future’

Jerry Haar at The Hill

Trade policy is “conceived, planned and implemented by economists, lawyers and bureaucrats who are far removed from the real world of commercial transactions,” says Jerry Haar. “As such, they are very often oblivious to the impacts of trade policy on producers and consumers.” But while “tariff increases are here to stay” and “exporters, importers, producers and consumers will all be negatively affected,” there is a “silver lining:” tariff increases “will force companies to assess (and reassess) their efficiency and productivity.”

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‘Now might be the time to retire our worst fears about the technology’

Christopher Beha at The New York Times

“Proponents claim that artificial intelligence will eliminate acts of mental drudgery,” says Christopher Beha, while “detractors worry not just that it will eliminate well-paying knowledge sector jobs and increase inequality but also that it will effectively steal the human soul.” But “the obsolescence of human culture will almost certainly not come to pass.” The root of this worry is “not an overestimation of technology but a radical underestimation of humanity” and the “transformative power of human genius.”

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‘Selling off some of the government’s holdings would ease fiscal stress’

Thomas Sowell at The Wall Street Journal

“The incoming Trump administration will confront some huge financial challenges,” says Thomas Sowell, requiring “huge amounts” of government spending. “Where will the government get this money?” Perhaps from selling off the “vast” amount of government-owned land, valued at $1.8 trillion by the Commerce Department. “The federal government owns a little more than one-fourth of the total land area of the United States,” Sowell says. “The time is long overdue to consider whether that is the best economic arrangement.”

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