With supersize wants, it's time to ask: Do we need it?

Commentary. By Eric Anderson, MD, AMNews contributor. March 19, 2001.

COMMENTARY

Observations on the state of medical practice and medical life

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Both of my grandmothers lived in our Scottish village when I was young.

One was a compassionate soul who loved all the grandchildren her 11 children had given her but, a poor farmer's wife, she could offer the kids she adored little except kindness and affection.

The other grandmother was a stern, flinty woman who believed her grandkids were always after her money. Any time a child murmured wistfully that it would be nice to have, say, a toy soldier or a comic book, she would pierce the kid with her eagle eye and ask, "Would you like it?" Then would come, "Do you want it?," and finally the killer phrase delivered so triumphantly: "But do you need it? Hah!" That closed the matter.

It wasn't a secret which grandmother was more loved, but we all learned things from the second grandmother, such as: You shouldn't want things you don't need.

Indeed, "Do you really need it?" is a phrase I sometimes hear in my own mind when I put aside ingrained Calvinistic doctrines and enjoy life. Frugality seems embedded in the Scottish character, and it's one of many reasons why health care costs can, to a degree, be contained in Britain.

And how does all this compare with America, the land of which I'm proud to be a citizen? You gotta be kidding! The countries are poles apart -- which is why the United States will never tame the multibillion-dollar beast, the cost of health care.

America is a nation of excess that makes Imelda Marcos' 1,220 pairs of shoes seem a modest eccentricity in comparison. We have too much of everything: gas-guzzling cars, home supersonic video systems, riding lawnmowers and things. And too many rock stars, too many kids with money, too many politicians, maybe even too many people, some with demands that would surely embarrass Oliver Twist. [...]