I’ve
been
listening
to
the
audio
book
version
of
“Careless
People”
by
Sarah
Wynn-Williams.
If
you
haven’t
read
it,
you
should.
It’s
great.
Despite
being
set
within
the
halls
of
Facebook,
one
of
the
most
powerful
companies
on
the
planet,
it
is
remarkable
how
relatable
so
many
of
the
problems
the
author
faces
are.
It
reminds
me
of
working
at
a
law
firm,
except
in
the
book,
rather
than
law
firm
partners
recklessly
wielding
their
power
for
personal
gain
while
completely
blinding
themselves
to
the
negative
externalities
of
their
actions,
it’s
Mark
Zuckerberg
and
Sheryl
Sandberg
doing
the
same
with
global
consequences.
One
particular
problem
Wynn-Williams
describes,
and
I
don’t
think
this
is
much
of
a
spoiler
because
almost
every
person
who
has
ever
been
employed
has
had
the
same
problem
at
one
point
or
another,
is
wanting
to
leave
her
job
but
being
unable
to
because
the
health
insurance
her
family
relies
on
is
being
provided
by
Facebook.
Wynn-Williams
becomes
disillusioned
with
Facebook
long
before
she
ultimately
leaves
the
company
but
has
to
keep
helping
it
wreck
democracy
around
the
world
for
years
because
she
needs
the
health
benefits
and
has
trouble
finding
another
equivalent
job.
From
Facebook’s
perspective,
during
that
lag
time
she
is
providing
them
with
worse
labor.
From
her
perspective,
she
is
justifiably
miserable.
This
is
partially
a
function
of
the
fact
that
tying
health
care
to
a
particular
employer
is
stupid
and
dramatically
harms
both
the
individual
and
the
broader
economy.
No
employer
would
be
dumb
enough
to
say
anything
about
this
directly
or
to
put
it
in
writing,
but
bosses
know
they
have
us
by
the
balls
when
it
comes
to
health
care.
Are
you
really
going
to
risk
suing
your
company
because
your
boss
is
mildly
sexually
harassing
you
when
you
know
your
kid
might
need
surgery
funded
by
the
company
health
insurance
package?
Of
course
you
are
not
going
to
take
this
risk.
You
are
going
to
be
reluctantly
willing
to
just
swallow
all
sorts
of
abuses
from
your
boss
to
keep
your
health
care,
because
even
for
high-achievers
it
is
very
difficult
to
find
another
job
with
good
health
benefits.
Countless
personal
miseries
can
be
laid
at
the
feet
of
a
health
care
system
driven
by
employer-sponsored
insurance.
It
is
also
a
disaster
for
the
broader
economy.
This
figure
varies
over
time
and
by
methodology,
but
one
fairly
recent
survey
found
that
a
third
of
workers
who
get
their
health
insurance
through
their
employers
would
either
be
very
likely
or
somewhat
likely
to
quit
if
they
did
not
have
to
rely
on
their
employers
for
health
insurance.
This
survey
also
found
that
26%
of
Americans
with
employer-sponsored
health
insurance
said
they
would
start
their
own
companies
if
health
insurance
was
not
a
factor.
Think
of
all
that
innovation
we
are
missing
out
on
from
more
than
a
quarter
of
workers
who
would
rather
be
trying
out
their
own
things
if
that
wouldn’t
entail
being
bankrupted
by
keeping
themselves
and
their
kids
alive.
Think
of
how
much
more
productive
workers
would
be
if
a
third
of
them
could
be
doing
something
they
were
actually
passionate
about.
This
is
not
an
intractable
problem.
Every
single
other
wealthy
country
in
the
world
has
some
form
of
government-sponsored
health
care
that
is
not
tied
to
a
specific
employer
for
primary
health
care
coverage.
We
could
emulate
any
international
example
we
chose,
and
combine
that
with
all
the
good
old-fashioned
American
ingenuity
we
already
have
going
for
us
here.
Yes,
government-sponsored
health
care
is
expensive.
Insurance
premium
payments
are
also
expensive.
Whatever
the
funding
source,
it
is
all
going
to
pay
for
the
same
health
care
services,
so
there
is
no
reason
government-sponsored
primary
coverage
needs
to
be
inherently
more
expensive
than
the
current
system
in
which
most
people
rely
on
their
employers
for
coverage
(in
fact,
the
former
should
be
cheaper
than
the
latter
in
that
it
cuts
out
the
for-profit
middlemen
—
private
insurance
companies
—
and
also
through
the
much
more
powerful
negotiating
leverage
single-payer
systems
have
over
providers).
Well,
I
feel
a
lot
of
solidarity
with
Sarah
Wynn-Williams
and
everyone
else
faced
with
the
same
impossible
choices.
At
least
she
now
has
a
bestselling
book
under
her
belt,
even
as
Facebook
is
still
trying
to
make
her
miserable.
Myself?
I’ve
just
been
raw
dogging
it
without
health
insurance
for
the
past
two
years
since
I
became
an
independent
operator.
Hopefully
we
can
all
struggle
through
another
four
years
in
this
garbage
system,
because
the
current
occupant
of
the
White
House
has
no
intention
of
changing
it.
Jonathan
Wolf
is
a
civil
litigator
and
author
of Your
Debt-Free
JD (affiliate
link).
He
has
taught
legal
writing,
written
for
a
wide
variety
of
publications,
and
made
it
both
his
business
and
his
pleasure
to
be
financially
and
scientifically
literate.
Any
views
he
expresses
are
probably
pure
gold,
but
are
nonetheless
solely
his
own
and
should
not
be
attributed
to
any
organization
with
which
he
is
affiliated.
He
wouldn’t
want
to
share
the
credit
anyway.
He
can
be
reached
at [email protected].