Krugman, in fact, claims that the people actually who do face some hardship related to Obamacare don’t deserve our concern. The “true losers from Obamacare generally aren’t very sympathetic. For the most part, they’re either very affluent people affected by the special taxes that help finance reform, or at least moderately well-off young men in very good health who can no longer buy cheap, minimalist plans.”

Thus, you don’t need to feel for Jim Bulger, head of a cattle association in Texas, who is raising two teenagers. He lost his plan with a $5,000 deductible. He decided to go with a plan from his current insurer, Humana, because he liked the service he’d received over the years and he wanted to keep his network of doctors. That resulted in a premium increase of 84 percent. But he’s healthy and relatively affluent, so his problems can be dismissed.

One is tempted to say that the Anointed have a collective case of serious denial, but it’s more than that. As Sowell has shown, people who think they know best how to run other people’s lives always push major changes in public policy such as Obamacare. When the results are little short of a disaster, they ignore the evidence, dismiss the concerns of those who are struggling, and — here’s the kicker — advocate for even greater changes in public policy.