But America is going through an internal transformation. Many Americans who fought in the World Wars and their kids are either retired or very close to retirement. The generation after that which is slowing beginning to take over the country does not have a world view that their parents and grandparents had. They also did not have to fight major wars or economic depression as their parents or grandparents did either. Everything was handed on a plate to this generation. It is a generation of excess. Many of them are unaware of the competition they are facing from countries like India and China.

The guy’s an idiot. And, as you say, he is utterly lacking in class or compassion. He wouldn’t be worth mentioning, were it not for is ubiquity and mind-boggling influence. Pathetic. And pathological.

The more interesting point of your essay is comparing healthcare across various national schemes. I have written on the dysfunction of the American healthcare debate and in praise of the Canadian system of socialized medicine, and “participated” in a silly film set in an Indian hospital (warning: it was the drugs talking). But the most apt discussion is on this recent thread on Desicritics, which hashes through many of the issues confronting healthcare in India.