One problem in particular, if one were to dig past the rocky crust of entitlement thinking and emotions, is a faulty premise concerning healthcare. Consider the following syllogism:
- Premise 1: No one ought to be allowed to die as a result of his own foolish health insurance decisions.
- Secondary premise: It is not fair that some must pay for the foolishness of others.
- Conclusion: Government must take away all people’s rights when it comes to health insurance.
The premise of which I speak is number 1. Like the Blazing Saddles’ sheriff who gained control of a deteriorating situation by holding his gun to his own head, this premise allows that no matter how irresponsible a person may be, society must step in before that person pays the ultimate price for his stupidity. Never mind for the moment that this directly contradicts our society’s religious source for morality: evolution, the effect is that an entire society is held captive, according to Nancy Pelosi and myself, by those who think buying a Harley more important than providing for one’s own healthcare. So when they are hauled into ER shortly after they found their Harley and helmetless head bouncing down the highway, premise 1 kicks in. Since premise 1 is already accepted law, and as such constitutes de facto free healthcare, Obamacare can’t really be seen as the beginning of socialized medicine but rather only a stage in its implementation.
There have always been other options beyond letting the man die that don’t involve the coercion of those who choose wisdom over foolishness. For one he could be cared for then charged for the service. The resources could be extracted somehow. The IRS could be consulted on this. They are masters at extracting the fruit of other people’s labor from their greedy little hands. But for the same reasons that we accept premise 1 as a given, we, as a people, will never allow for any options that might make a mom feel bad.
For those who see the 2700 pages of bureaucratic-micro-managing-tentacle law bound up inside Obamacare as an actual effort to solve health insurance issues there’s probably no hope; likewise for those who blindly see it as compassion or others yet who see it as just another means to pick their “rich” neighbor’s pocket. But for many it is a travesty. For just as throwing expensive drugs, as opposed to searching out root issues, at a sick person’s symptoms is expensive in terms of that person’s health and dollar-bills; it’s also expensive in terms of liberty and dollar-bills when higher taxes and less freedom are seen as the only acceptable medicine for maintaining the health of a free republic.
When a people enjoy the luxury, for a time, of abandoning reality; choosing instead to drink deep the wine of make-believe worlds of personal peace, affluence, and resources that magically appear at their benevolent leader’s beckon and call, they become too drunk to think. But reality has a way of catching up. It always does. And given the bar tab, and the drunken stupor that the majority of Americans appear to have drank themselves into, when it catches up this time it’s going to run us all down.
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4 comments:
Great post, glad to see you blogging! Bonus points for the Blazing Saddles reference. It is bizarre how they can say and do such illogical things and act so contrary to their worldview and never be called on it or show any shame.
Aww Dan,
You mean to say that we can't just stick our heads in the sand and pretend that really bad choices somehow breed good consequences?
For just as throwing expensive drugs, as opposed to searching out root issues, at a sick person’s symptoms is expensive ...
It's interesting how so much of conventional medical care is focused on simply managing symptoms. In some instances, basic nutritional adjustments or centuries old natural herbal treatments are eyed with suspicion or simply dismissed as "unproven".
Have you ever wondered whether the decision-makers would prefer to just create a country full of drug-dependent citizens who never really experience any true healing?
It doesn't make any sense,either, considering the fact that universal health care would benefit much more as a system of predominately healthy people. Still, with a pill now being pushed for nearly every discomfort, it seems as though that is the goal.
But, I suppose that only underscores your point with regard to the lack of logic involved here...
Heather
That reminds me Heather of Obama telling a lady that under his plan her mother would have simply been given a pill to treat the symptom of pain because she was too old to justify wasting the money on actually treating the cause of her pain. I think the people graveling for his plan saw all of this in the abstract. They never considered that they may well be that poor old lady one day, too old to "waste" money on beyond paying for pain killers until they die.
Great post, Dan.
The whole Nanny Government thing is really, really scary. We are more and more having our personal choices and responsibility removed so the N.G. can control our lives from cradle to grave.
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