When you don’t pay for a service, you are not the customer but the vector to get to the real customer. Think: Television, radio, Google, Facebook, healthcare.

When you don’t pay for a service, you are not the customer but the vector to get to the real customer. Think: Television, radio, Google, Facebook, healthcare. There are gigantic pools of funds out there in quasi-private insurance, Medicare, and Medicaid. Costs explode. Similarly, gigantic pools of funds are available thanks to subsidized student loans that cannot be bankrupted. College costs explode. Being uninsured is terrifying because the individual healthcare buyer is competing with deep-pocketed insurers and government programs who are much less price-sensitive. Healthcare is expensive because the patient is not the customer. Insurance is going crazy because insurance is legally compelled to pay for oil changes and basic maintenance, so insurers must accept more exposure.