MORE ON BLOOMBERG’S PLAN TO LET PEOPLE “SUFFER A BIT,” from Megan McArdle.

Of course, I assume that this will also make it harder for addicts to get the prescription drugs with which they are currently screwing up their lives. But it’s hard for me to view this as a worthwhile tradeoff. It seems fairly horrible to keep people in bad pain, incurred through no fault of their own, in order to protect other people from themselves. I’m not minimizing the problem of prescription drug abuse, mind you; I’ve known a few people who’ve had a hard time with it. But I’ve also known a few people who were in chronic pain, and I know which one I’d choose.

And we know which Bloomberg has chosen.

UPDATE: Reader Gail Rampke writes: “More despicably, we know what he will choose when he is in pain: private clinic, private doctor, private medication for he, but not for thee.”

Suffering — like laws, and taxes — is for the little people.