B ack in the twentieth century, the United States of America enjoyed the most extraordinary economic growth, the most incredible scientific advances, and the most successful global empire. The nation's health care system grew and grew, until finally the nation's leaders realized that it meant to devour the entire national economy. After decades of failed reforms proposed by economists, policy analysts, and other social-science wizards, the leaders turned at last to the Grand Psychologist. He alone, they thought, might understand the psyche of the health care monster and know how to tame it. The problem, he explained to the leaders, was people.
Human beings have an unlimited, incurable desire to help sufferers.
They develop bottomless sympathies, delusions of kinship, and fierce loyalties to the people they care for. They will do anything to help. The Grand Psychologist believed he could save the country if he could conduct a bold experiment. He would need to stifle human compassion. But he knew the leaders would be upset by his plan, since they needed to present themselves as compassionate in order to get elected.