Good thing we're all so sick and homeless

If not for Americans' willingness to pay loads of money to treat their various ailments and house themselves, the US economy would be in a dismal state, according to BusinessWeek:

...the very real problems with the health-care system mask a simple fact: Without it the nation's labor market would be in a deep coma. Since 2001, 1.7 million new jobs have been added in the health-care sector, which includes related industries such as pharmaceuticals and health insurance. Meanwhile, the number of private-sector jobs outside of health care is no higher than it was five years ago.

Sure, housing has been a bonanza for homebuilders, real estate agents, and mortgage brokers. Together they have added more than 900,000 jobs since 2001. But the pressures of globalization and new technology have wreaked havoc on the rest of the labor market: Factories are still closing, retailers are shrinking, and the finance and insurance sector, outside of real estate lending and health insurers, has generated few additional jobs.

So, if not for healthcare and home-building, we'd have no more jobs than we did in 2001. Great - I can't wait for the housing bubble to burst and our too-expensive medical system to price itself out of affordability. That's going to be so much fun.