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Last Call
Density Is Destiny
Was it really worth dealing with? We were pulling out of the parking lot of a White Castle in Nashville, and my college friend Mike had just realized that we had been overcharged for our pile of burgers. After some consideration, we decided to back up and turn into the drive-through again.
With no other cars in front of us, we coasted to the window, and Mike explained everything to the cashier. There was a short pause, and we prepared for the worst. The thing is, when you’ve lived in New York City, you’re conditioned to expect that any consumer dispute will be a major hassle or a potential altercation. But things worked differently down here. The young cashier threw up his arms and exclaimed, “Well, let’s figure it out!”
Huh? You mean, he was actually going to cooperate with us, resolve the problem in a calm and rational manner, and do so happily, without giving us dirty looks or rolling his eyes?
Within 90 seconds of our initial wavering about whether we were going to deal with the situation, we peeled out of the White Castle parking lot a few dollars richer, with our burgers still warm. We were a pair of stunned Yankees.
This incident was one that made me realize that it isn’t a myth: once you get out of Northeastern cities, people are significantly more civil to one another. It wasn’t until I did some more traveling that I came to understand that this had nothing to do with people in other parts of the country being inherently better (no offense to any Southern readers), but rather, it was a matter of numbers. That is, the more people there are in a given area, the more likely it is that people will come into conflict, and the less likely that they will treat each other with basic decency.
In the 1950s, psychologist John B. Calhoun did some crowding experiments with rats, and found that as population density increased, males became more aggressive, violence ensued, and rodent society broke apart. This is something that holds true wherever I have visited throughout the world, and it’s amazing to observe how easily my own behavior can be influenced by my environment.
When I visited Omaha, Nebraska, I became a much friendlier version of myself. Yet while touring some of China’s congested cities, when people kept cutting in front of me in lines, I became frustrated by my inability to curse at them in Mandarin and was forced to whip out my New York elbows from their holsters. Driving on open roads out West is a pleasant experience, but when dealing with bottlenecks in the New York to D.C. corridor (or even worse, I-95 in southern Florida), I adopt the mentality of a gladiator and the vocabulary of Joe Pesci.
This is one of the reasons why—beyond my ideological and practical policy disagreements—I marvel at the inability of liberals to grasp what a massive public backlash is in store should they achieve their dream of national health care. Liberals want to give free or heavily subsidized health care to millions more people. At best, the number of doctors will remain the same (though that number could shrink if the government slashes reimbursement rates as part of the effort to cut costs). A combination of more demand for services, a stable or shrinking supply of physicians, and price controls can result in only one thing: much more crowded doctors’ offices and hospital emergency rooms, with far longer waits.
While citizens of other countries are accustomed to socialized medical systems, this sort of thing won’t fly in America, where people are much more impatient and demanding. Sure, Americans want medicine to be cheaper, and ideally they’d like to see everybody covered, but despite this, a CNN poll released in March found that more than eight out of 10 Americans are satisfied with the health care they receive. How will they react when taking a kid to the doctor’s office replicates the experience of navigating rush-hour traffic on the New Jersey Turnpike?
Philip Klein is The American Spectator's Washington correspondent.
Comments
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Robert Rosencrans| 6.16.09 @ 7:16AM
Governments have a way of dealing with everything, including the normal act of impatience.
Your article is very well thought out, but government bureaucrats are clever and when it comes to medical care, welcome to the new age of medical infinity, highlighted by endless waits at each stage of the alleged medical treatment.
When you need medical care you will most likely either make an appointment on the internet or call in and push various buttons (One for English, etc.) until you find the right mix to move through the technical maze of making an appointment.
Once you have the appointment you will learn to wait patiently as you enter a building that reminds you eerily of a Division of Motor Vehicles.
As the clock progresses and time rolls by you will feel cemented to the chair, and will experience the anxiety of never knowing when you might receive health care. That experience of waiting might require another appointment to follow up on that anxiety attack.
At the end of the day as you quiver in your anonymity in the system, you will be told to reschedule, which might lead to another day, or perhaps you just fell back in the que another month.
Soon you will learn to ignore all but the most major symptoms, i.e., head starting to fall off, missing appendages, blood spouting from ears, because your chance of working your way through the system will be slim to none.
If you are ever lucky enough to actually see an actual healer, it will most likely be an assistant to an assistant who determines if your symptoms are serious enough to go on to the next level.
At some point you may actually get to see a licensed physician who may order some tests which will require more lines and waiting.
As the complaints flood in about the waits and incompetency the public will be informed that "It's the price we have to pay to cover everyone."
The road to hell is paved with good intentions.
Becky| 6.16.09 @ 9:39AM
It is difficult to plan something using 2 dimensional thoughts that have to work in a multi dimensional world.
I was a roof truss layout designer years ago using pencil and paper and a hand calculator. One of the most complex parts of a house is the roof structure. A roof truss layout is a 2 dimensional representation of a 3 dimensional (4 including the time factor of duration of load). The flat plan looks nothing like the finished product you see.
Anyone can draw lines on paper to represent a roof. Whether it works out in the real world or not is another thing.
I think that government tinkering with health care is like someone engineering a roof without the knowledge required to make the pieces fit and perform as expected. A single unique (which every person is) 3000 square foot house roof system can take hours to design, the total project can take many, many hours, and mulitiple people. For a few smart people to think they can design and implement millions of persons health care needs (complex systems) is insane.
glevy| 6.16.09 @ 9:55AM
Excellent article. It is rare that an analogy like this totally works but it does. My parents came from a country with socialized medicine and beleive me....the outcomes are as you described if not worse.
My fear is that there are too many people in this country that have no experience with this, being as that they have never left the country nor have any desire to do so. I fear that these people will shape the decisions en mass.
Maybe one day, beaurocrats will understand a very a basic economic theory that has helped sustain companies for centuries....cut spending, revenues increase. Very simple!
Vector| 6.16.09 @ 10:09AM
My wife is a Doctor. She says the worst patients are those who are getting it for "free" (meaning others are paying for it because nothing is free). She says they are rude, demanding, always ask to speak to her boss when she denies their demands for narcotics. She fears everyone will turn into this when our health care is "free."
PS Southerners ARE more polite overall. We are raised that way, even those in the larger cities like Dallas and Atlanta are far nicer than your city dwellers. Although I have met pleanty of northern country folks in NY, PA, IL and they are just as polite and generous to strangers as anyone I have every met.
Son Of Sam| 6.16.09 @ 10:29AM
Neither the bureaucrats nor the politicians give a frogs fat rear end about our "frustrations". THEY will have a whole separate system for themselves, just as their salaries and their pensions are not tied to actual performance, either of their own or the whole American economy, but will be paid for by all of us.
The only way to get the message across to them is for the so-called "elites" to begin FEARING the people again. Freedom cannot survive us being afraid of them
stand strong until freedom dawns
Son Of Sam
http://www.samadamssos.bravehost.com
Le Cracquere| 6.16.09 @ 10:35AM
Like Vector, I suspect it's more a Southern thing (or non-Northeastern thing). I grew up in a sparsely populated rural area that became a spread-out suburb, and currently live in the heart of a largish, densely packed Southern city. If anything, the city folks are more courteous in practice than the suburban/rural folks, because one is always encountering more people to be courteous TO.
In my personal experience, density & city life have caused me & my neighbors to feel as if we are more cohered--not as a liberal collective or social class, but as that thing once called a "civitas." It's the sort of soil that can and does nurture conservatism, pace certain anti-city ideologues on the right who seem to think suburbanism the natural condition of a free man, and contra urban leftists who like and need conservatives to assume this.
Choey| 6.16.09 @ 10:35AM
I can't believe that the Democrats don't realize that if this thing passes and is an expensive failure it will be hung around their necks like the rotten stinking albatross that it is. It should affect elections for decades.
Dave Lincoln| 6.16.09 @ 11:30AM
Robert Rosecrans, I just want to say that you have the best comments I have read, at least on a regular basis.
Spectator Editors, you ought to hire this guy. Oh, and even though Mr Klein found a White Castle in Tennessee, it is a northern chain. The northerners also expect Dunkin Donuts down South instead of Krispy Kreme. Listen, when you're down South, quit asking where the Dunkin Donuts is, OK? You're gonna eat Krispy Kreme donuts, and you're gonna like em (really!).
Dave Lincoln| 6.16.09 @ 11:30AM
Robert Rosecrans, I just want to say that you have the best comments I have read, at least on a regular basis.
Spectator Editors, you ought to hire this guy. Oh, and even though Mr Klein found a White Castle in Tennessee, it is a northern chain. The northerners also expect Dunkin Donuts down South instead of Krispy Kreme. Listen, when you're down South, quit asking where the Dunkin Donuts is, OK? You're gonna eat Krispy Kreme donuts, and you're gonna like em (really!).
Old Texican| 6.16.09 @ 11:51AM
Yeah...Robert is angling for a job with his consistently "round-out comments" of serious insight.
Thanks again, Robert...what you said!
Now:
Houston has about as bad a traffic situation as any American city. So it's not "density". Noreasterners are always amazed when they come here...and hear no horn honking. I just explain that "hey...no one knows you! If they knew you they would honk...and wave."
Dave Lincoln| 6.16.09 @ 12:29PM
Dang, I only hit "submit" once, I swear. That was weird, sorry.
Texican, I hear ya. If I hear someone honking at home down South, I usually look around for someone I know.
I think maybe it's both Southern hospitality and more space that correlates to more politeness. Think Atlanta - not very friendly, I don't think, and it's both (1) crowded and (2) not part of the South.
Old Texican| 6.16.09 @ 1:33PM
Dave
Point well taken.
Do keep in mind the carpet baggers are still invading Atlanta (etc) for a better life, but drag some curtness with them.
We gotta' educate 'em is all. (grin)
KyMouse| 6.16.09 @ 2:21PM
Although born and raised in Kentucky, I chose to live in NYC for two years in the early '80s. Yes, I certainly did notice that people in general aren't as polite as they are down south. Argumentative, too: A Southerner will often, if not usually, let someone else win a point in conversation, just to be gracious. But my sister-in-law in NYC will argue over whether or not it's a cloudy day.
Perhaps the biggest difference I noticed was that in the South, if you physically bump into someone on the street, you say "excuse me" or "sorry." I suppose that's not practical in NYC, where jostling is a constant fact of life, but I missed hearing it.
I lived in Atlanta for about five years during the late '60s and early '70s, when it was approaching a population of one million. Even with so many people, it was still customary to say "Hey" whenever one made eye contact with another person on the street. Yes, even a white gal (like me) making eye contact with a black guy. I've talked with other folks who remember the same thing.
I mean "Hey" as in "Hello," of course, not as in "Hey, you." Just in case anyone is confused.
Robert Rosencrans| 6.16.09 @ 2:24PM
Thanks for the gracious comments, I really appreciate it. The American Spectator has some of the most thought provoking political insight available.
The Phillip Klein point is one of genius and points to the theme of the crushing of the individual which is the end game of all collectivism.
KyMouse| 6.16.09 @ 2:34PM
I was born and raised in Kentucky, but lived in Atlanta for about five years in the early 1970s, when its population was approaching one million. Even though that's a lot of folks, it was still customary to say "Hey" to anyone with whom one made eye contact on the street -- even a white gal (me) passing by a black guy. Sadly, I imagine things have changed since then.
When I lived in NYC in the early '80s, it took me a while to adjust to the fact that people seldom said "excuse me" or "sorry" if they brushed against someone on the sidewalk. I suppose that's hard to do when jostling is a constant fact of life, but I missed the courtesy.
I do think Southerners in general are more polite; we are far more likely to let someone think they are right in a conversation, for the sake of graciousness. On the other hand, my sister-in-law, a native New Yorker, will argue about whether or not it's a cloudy day.
KyMouse| 6.16.09 @ 3:11PM
No, I'm not having short-term memory loss. Sorry about the repetition -- my computer didn't seem to be accepting my comment, so I had to retype it a few times. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry.
and "hey" to y'all.
Marc Jeric| 6.16.09 @ 3:38PM
Well, I lived in the free medical care society - in a communist country. I was a student and needed a tooth repair; the first morning there was only standing room in the waiting area. But you learn fast. Next day I came to that dentist's office at 5 AM and found out I was #16 in line; there was a small hope to get there late in the PM. But the dentist was called off at 2 PM for some reason and we were told to come back tomorrow. I showed up at 4AM and was #9. My turn came up at 1PM and was out in 30 minutes with my cavity filled. Some years later, after my escape, the French dentist was amazed at the "workmanship" of my fillings and replaced them all; but that was also socialized medicine. Then in California all those fillings had to be replaced again: my dentist wondered: "Where did they do this work on you?"
cuban pete| 6.16.09 @ 4:39PM
I have lived in and around Chicago all my life and despite the embarassing politics it is a great part of the country-especially if you like to eat.
Having said that my second favorite town is Nashville.
Genuinely friendly people and great live music for a pittance. You can drop in to any of the joints on Broadway and hear live music for the price of a beer and an occasional "pass the hat".
Even when the places are packed the help and the customers are cordial. And it aint all country either as I have heard some great jazz groups.
Alan Brooks| 6.16.09 @ 9:18PM
here I go out on a limb again: I live out West, after spending half my life in NY, and the West is only superficially more civil; underneath it all, Southerners and Westerners are, as we can infer, just more diplomatic. Southerners try to charm.
the West is horribly vulgar, though: almost as bad as the Midwest. I hear tasteles dirty jokes in public all the time because it is wide open spaces and wide open morality. Liberty and lumpen-prole morality have never coexisted-- not genuine morality.
the great Sage of Baltimore would not have thrived out west. George F. Will can stand Chicago only because he possesses a unique strength of character and will-power. His surname is Will, after all.
Alan Brooks| 6.16.09 @ 9:36PM
btw, just to lighten it up with a little old fashioned (i.e. unacceptable for 21st century sensitivities) humor:
a guy at a swingers' club spins a bottle and he breaks down in tears-- the bottle points at his wife.
See today THAT joke would be considered in extremely "bad taste" not merely because it is tepid but because it homes in all too close to home...
Dave Lincoln| 6.17.09 @ 2:04AM
What? Didn't like that one? wimps!
Pingback| 6.17.09 @ 2:52AM
News Briefs June 14-20/2009 | www.new-right.org links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Don| 6.17.09 @ 7:52AM
I live in NJ, work in NYC, now downtown, formerly, Midtown.
You all need to stop generalizing.
Perhaps this will help. In Midt0wn, I saw 2 separate incidents, both around the theater districts.
1: A woman (t0urist) turned her ankle in a pothole by the theaters, went down in the street.
At LEAST a dozen NY'ers rushed to her aid, g0t her back on her feet, made sure she was ok, then.....disappeared..
2: Similar scenario. A bike rider got bumped by a taxi, went down. Same thing, dozens rushed to his aid, called 911, blocked traffic with their bodies to protect the downed bike rider until the Police arrived, then....disappeared...
Many of us have 1.5 to 2 hour commutes..
We have places to go...12 h0ur days are n0t unusual...
Thus, the appearance 0f being in a "hurry" or being "rude"..
Finally, the WTC attacks, and the recent jet landing in the Hudson..
NY'ers of all sizes and stripes ran TO these disasters t0 help 0ut the injured.
That help ,in the case 0f the WTC, lasted f0r many m0nths, and p0ured in from all over these great United States..
Let's all act as 0ne nati0n and st0p generalizing.. Spend m0re than a few days here, and y0u will see and experience all kinds 0f c0urtesy and acts 0f kindness. Y0u will...
I trust my fell0w NY,Ct, and NJ folks t0 c0me t0 my assistance if I ever sh0uld need it, and I find them all decent folks.. Quick and t0 the p0int, but c0urte0us,hepful and respectful.
Fear the Voices| 6.17.09 @ 7:55PM
Well said! Many of the comments too.
As I live near the Canadian border, and have worked with several Canadians too. The horror stories of infinite wait times, and even deadly wait times for basic tests is all too real. Is this what we are going to let them place upon us? God forbid we let the elite, self-serving, arrogant, irresponsible politicians doom us to more of these socialist ideals of the obamanation. We must take a stand or there will soon be nothing left to preserve. As it is, most of the checks and balances of government have already been defeated and handed over to czars..... How soon before we have lost our voice entirely?
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Richard Baker| 6.17.09 @ 11:58PM
The best exposition regarding Liberty and Freedom is STILL Mr. Jefferson's Declaration of Independence. More Americans need to read it, and often. I assure you it's clarity and brevity recommend it. We have the solution to tyrannical government in our history. Give it a try. You won't regret it. Remember, the Founding Fathers went to Revolution over a 3% Stamp Tax. They would be amazed at our national sheepish behavior.
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