Mark Whitehouse of the WSJ blog writes,

Annual public and private health-care spending in the U.S. stands at $7,538 per person, 2.41 times the OECD average and 51% more than the second-biggest spender, Norway. Meanwhile, average U.S. life expectancy is 77.9 years, less than the OECD average of 79.4.

Gaze at the chart he includes. The U.S. government spends more per person on health care than the Canadian government.

Somebody should do a similar chart for K-12 education. My guess is that there we also far outspend everyone else, with mediocre outcomes.

Health care and education are, of course, the New Commanding Heights. That is, they are the growing sectors of the economy which, if you were Lenin, you would want to be sure that the state controls.