Why Racism and Healthcare Reform Don't Mix

1. The Problem of Insane Incentives
 Instead of true [healthcare system] reform [Obama and the Congress are giving us] a series of bills that essentially cement the present system in place. The proposals do not fundamentally challenge the fee-for-service system. They don’t make Americans more accountable for their own health care spending. They don’t reduce costs. They just add more people into the mess we’ve got.

2. The Problem of Insane Incentives
STEPHANOPOULOS: "Does it frustrate you when your own supporters see racism when you don’t think it exists." 
OBAMA: "Look I think that race is such a volatile issue in this society, always has been that, uh, it becomes hard for people to separate out race being a sort of part of the backdrop of American society versus race being a predominant factor in any given debate. And what I’ve said, when we talked during the campaign, are there some people who don’t like me because of my race? I’m sure there are. Are there some people who voted for me only because of my race? There are probably some of those too. The overwhelming part of the American population, I think, is right now following this debate and they are trying to figure out, is this gonna help me. Is health care [reform] going to make me better off? Now there are some who are, setting aside the issue of race, actually I think are more passionate about the idea of whether government can do anything right. And I think that [i.e., the fear of government control] that’s probably the biggest driver of some of the vitriol."


3. The Problem of Insane Incentives
Race and Culture, by Thomas Sowell (1994)
[p. 117] Few mixtures are more volatile than race and politics. . . . The direct role of politics in shaping racial and ethnic attitudes and policies is only one facet of political influences on race and culture. Many policies not intended as racial or ethnic nevertheless have disparate impacts on different groups.
[p. 118] Some political arrangements, however, can ameliorate racial frictions and help defuse racial tensions, while other political circumstances can transform harmonious group relations into mutual bloodletting in the streets, within a few years time.. . . Political systems, like economic systems, need to be examined in terms of the incentives they create, rather than simply the goals they pursue or the philosophies  or ideologies which shape these goals. Moreover, it would be a serious mistake to think of "the blacks," "the Jews," or "the Chinese" as unified entities consistently pursuing group self-interest. . . . Political systems are essentially systems of power and their relative effectiveness for different purposes reflects that central fact. Government may use its power to forbid, coerce, confiscate, punish, or expel. Goals achieved within these means are well within the effective control of government. Goals which depend upon creativity, skills, thrift, work habits, organizational abilities, and technological knowledge in the population at large are much less within the power of incumbent officials to achieve within a politically relevant time period. In the short run--within the term of office of elected officials, for example--government can do little to increase substantially these sources of economic prosperity. It can also do little to change the people's traditions, attitudes, wisdom, and tolerance (or intolerance) inherited from the past--all of which constrain the options of existing power holders and determine the stability and viability of the governmental structure itself.