Dying to get ahead.

• Author: Rundles, Jeff
• Position: Rundles Wrap-up

Just recently, I went to a couple of Colorado Rockies baseball games, and I ended up with heartburn for days afterward each time. No, not because I ate the hot dog, although I did indeed do that. And, no, not because I drank a beer, even though I did.

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It wasn't the cuisine, it was the cost. One hot dog and one beer: $11.75. I was lucky heartburn was the worst of it. When the guy told me what the bill came to, I thought I would have a heart attack.

I shouldn't pick on the Rockies, I guess, although they deserve as much derision as all of us can muster for gouging the public like that. How about the city? Nine dollars a day for the outlying parking at DIA? Remember when they used to call it the economy lot? Even the city wouldn't be so cruel as to use such a shameless euphemism.

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Why is it that when we are dealing with a captive audience, we think it is acceptable to rip people--that would be us--off? Why? Because we're Americans. In America, consumer spending spurs the economy, which is a good thing for us all even if we ourselves, personally, are being overcharged.

I don't suppose I have to mention gasoline prices.

It's an American disease. Since we all aspire to be willing participants in conspicuous consumption, being robbed regularly by our own institutions and municipalities is just one of the many benefits--uh, I mean symptoms.

All this was really burning me up, raising my blood pressure, when I came across an interesting study that goes a long way in explaining a few things.

The study, based on national health statistics and published in the prestigious Journal of the American Medical Association, points out that white, middle-aged Americans are much less healthy than white, middle-aged citizens of England. The study looked only at whites to remove the factor of ethnic differences, and it showed that people in England are more healthy at every socio-economic level. This for a country that has universal health care said to be less effective than the more costly American health-care system.

Everything the researchers expected would suggest that the difference in health between the two countries should be minimal, yet Americans were far less healthy, a fact that stunned those looking into the numbers. Smoking rates are about the same. The English have more problems with alcohol. Even obesity rates couldn't explain the difference.

Maybe...