Well, I think it's easy to make such a judgement from the cheap seats. Hopefully you'll never be in the situation I found myself in; it's not quite as easy to just "find a quick way to end it once the pain starts getting out of control and the quality of life is gone." And my two daughters are happy I'm around 4 years later to celebrate Father's Day. I'm a diehard conservative, but I think that how a nation treats the ill and infirm says a lot about the character of its people.

By your logic, you wouldn't be carrying auto insurance, renter/homeowner's insurance either? As I originally responded, you're gravely confusing the true role of insurance. It's not to make one whole in a crisis, it's to ameliorate some of the worst case scenarios. Since you seem to be fond of investing, think of it as an option or derivative to offload some of your risk.

And you seriously quoted Malthus? Why don't you dig up Paul Ehrlich as well? That entire ZPG train of inquiry has long since been disproved.

Health insurance shouldn't be viewed as a means of paying for routine medical treatment, but for catastrophic events. Four years ago I was diagnosed with colon cancer. Fortunately I had excellent health insurance that paid for everything with the exception of my annual $400 deductible. For fun I kept track of my bills that the insurance company paid, especially the rate that I would have paid if I had been uninsured. I stopped when it hit $800K. So the idea of not having insurance and investing the money is silly. There's no way I would have been able to accrue $800K by the time I was diagnosed.

Obviously you've never worked in the restaurant biz. Labor is usually the highest element in the cost of goods, typically around 20%. The food items are usually around 20%, paper items another 6-8%. Throw in rent, utilities, etc. Royalty fees for McDonalds are around 10%, and the franchisee is usually gunning for a 10% margin. So for a $1.99 Big Mac, $.40 stays in the local economy as wages, $.40 stays in the state/US economy for the food components, so on and so forth. So try another stupid example...

And it's Reagan, not Regan. But then again, facts don't seem to bother you too much.