misplaced medical egalitarianism.

Martin Feldstein makes the following point:

"But budget considerations aside, health-economics experts agree that private health spending is too high because our tax rules lead to the wrong kind of insurance."

Due to scarcity rationing will always occur - the question is what process will be used.

The extremes of the continuum are liberty (decentralized agents interacting on their own knowledge) v. totalitarianism (Leviathan dictating allocation). As Boyes and I discuss over on Liberty, the current health care debate provides an outstanding example of the continuum of allocation methods and an opportunity to reflect on incentives and unintended consequences.

Feldstein discusses how tax rules (taxes are another example of increasing scale and scope of Leviathan in civil society as well as coercive power) lead to unintended consequences. Moreover, like regulations, these tax rules institutionalize in a very pernicious manner the power of the government and lead to a loss of liberty that may be permanent. (I am thinking now of the observation that the closest thing on earth to immortality is a government program). As more and more agents "accept" or become accustomed to the loss of liberty, the state has further room to grow.