Fred woke up early. He looked at the alarm clock next to his bed. The time was 5:55.

After his morning bathroom ritual he looks at his calendar. It is May 5th. His first appointment in at 555 5th Avenue. He goes down the elevator to hail a taxi and a cab pulls up. The taxi has the identification number 55 on the side.

As his cab pulls up to his appointment he looks up his appointment at the directory in the lobby. It is office number 5 on the 55th floor. He takes the elevator to the office and the receptionist tells him his appointment is running 5 minutes late.

Fred can’t stand it. He runs out of the office, grabs a cab, and heads to the track. He rushes to the window and places a bet of $500 on horse number 5.

It comes in 5th.

The point of this tale is that even in the face of seemingly irrefutable evidence; it is still possible to reach the wrong conclusion.

This is the sense I get in our health care debate. We tend to agree that it has some serious flaws, and we are quick to compare our system to other nations that have seemingly better systems based on some measurements and we are naturally moved to a more government controlled or mandated system of health care.

It is the wrong conclusion and the wrong solution.

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