Malcolm Gladwell, that good Canadian, is on Leonard Lopate (Kenji Jasper is guest-hosting) talking about single-payer healthcare systems. He's making some excellent points about using incentives other than insurance for encouraging people to take better care of themselves; the collective danger, expense, and inefficiency of forcing uninsured people to use the emergency room for their basic healthcare; and about how single-payer won't change our relationships to our doctors, just the way we pay the bills. Here's the story he's discussing, "The Moral-Hazard Myth: The Bad Idea Behind Our Failed Health-Care System." But really, I don't think Gladwell should be taken aback at Jasper's request for predictions about the likelihood that the United States will adopt a single-payer model someday. "You're asking me to read the future," Gladwell is saying. Well, yes! You have Big Theories! The least you can do is have a little Faith Popcorn in your own abstract assessments. It's the modest thing to say, of course, but I really don't think it's necessary.