Americans celebrate the cowboy culture of rugged individualism. It’s what makes us exceptional but it is also our Achilles heel.

This inability for some Americans to feel empathy unless something affects them or their family directly isn’t limited to issues like gun control or racial discrimination or same-sex marriage. It pervades our entire society.

Too many of us refuse to entertain the notion of everyone paying into a universal health care system so that everyone is protected and nobody has to suffer medical bankruptcy. We’re the only developed nation in the world that doesn’t want to keep all its residents healthy. Even some developing countries provide such care.

The result? Americans are sicker, unhappier, more stressed, have a higher cost of living, and don’t live as long as people in most other rich countries. We rank 18th in quality of life. And no, residents of those countries are not impoverished by massive taxes.