'We could have eliminated the income tax in 2010 had we adopted the Canadian...health care system'.

This article from Newsweek is worth sharing far and wide:

Has it ever occurred to you to negotiate with the pilot of the plane you just boarded about her pay?

Assuming the pilot was willing to take bids for her services, would you have any idea of how to evaluate the worth of that particular pilot compared to anyone else who might be at the controls? How long would it delay the flight while you and other passengers haggled over that fee?

And what of the risks in having a pilot focused on whether she negotiated good deals with her passengers, rather than getting everyone safely to their destination?

While haggling with pilots is absurd, the idea that individual Americans should negotiate the prices each pays for health care is getting a lot of serious discussion right now. The reason is the Affordable Care Act, a.k.a. Obamacare, which critics are desperate to find some way to stop.

Spoiler alert for those who will read the entire article: negotiating for health care in the same way you do for a used car is impossible. Also, health policy wonks won't find much new here, but for the layperson, this is a great summary as to why a single-payer, Medicare-for-everyone system is the only way to cover everyone and reduce the insane burden that American health care prices place on taxpayers:

Our universal single-payer health-care plan for older Americans, Medicare, has lower costs and lower overhead than the system serving those under age 65. If everyone in the U.S. was on Medicare, the savings would move the federal budget from deficit to surplus.

Of the 34 modern economies, the U.S. has by far the costliest health care system. For each dollar per capita that the other 33 economies spend on health care the U.S. spends $2.64, my analysis of Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development data shows.

Canada, Germany, and France each spend about 11.5 percent of their economy on health care, compared to 17.6 percent in the U.S.

We could have eliminated the income tax in 2010 had we adopted the Canadian, German, or French health-care systems.

I could share other parts of the article, but it is short and worth reading in full. If you have any conservative friends who think our current system is fiscally conservative, be sure to share this article. If you have any liberal friends who need more evidence to speak as to the virtues of single-payer, please share this article. I promise it is worth your time.