It just kills me that discussion of such a basic issue should turn in to a debate about the merits of Alisa Zinov'yevna Rosenbaum's objectivist philosophy or Marx's spin on the fruits of labor. I often don't think of myself as an exceptionally nice guy, but the grim grumbling about "property" makes me feel like a pretty cheery dude. Bitt, I admire your patience. TigerJimmy, I have concluded that you must be a robot.
I don't really understand what you're saying. I'm guessing that you believe that I feel no compassion for the unfortunate of the world (or perhaps that I'm an unthinking follower of Ayn Rand), but that is absolutely not the case. I just feel that a totalitarian government is not the way to care for them. I believe that a rising tide of wealth that comes from economic freedom (with regulations and constraints to protect the system) lifts all boats (albeit unevenly). I assert that the reason we have the nearly magical (though expensive) health care treatments in the first place is because of property rights and liberty. When we compassionately try to extend these benefits to everyone without considering that there's no such thing as a free lunch, I fear that we will eventually destroy the system which created them in the first place.
OK, I jest, I exaggerate, but I just don't get it. I feel like the American body politic is essentially antisocial. There is no sense of the commonwealth. Republicans aren't *for* anything, just against. Democrats pretend to be *for* something and talk about putting insurance companies in their place while taking exceptional care to please special interests (like insurance companies and pharma).
It is not anti-social to mistrust a strong central government, and it does not follow that I believe we shouldn't help those who can't help themselves. I just don't want to incrementally install the next bankrupt socialist government that controls every aspect of citizen's lives in order to do so.
I won't ever vote for a Democrat or Republican again, but I have to say that it concerns me to no end when Republican demagogues spout bullshit about how they have the will of the American people behind them. Goddamn proto-fascists and a bunch of freaking maladjusted children. They lost a few elections but seem to have conveniently forgotten their lessons in Democracy 101. If I wasn't going to be dead within 15-20 years I would be hugely concerned.
Huzzah! I would only add that the proto-socialist Democrats are just as bad.
And it is a total riot. The teabaggers and wingnuts with whom I would expect TigertJimmy to make common cause are railing about the "Socialist!" Obama and his evil designs when, in fact, Obama has turned out to be the most miserable, ineffectual, middle-of-the-road-to-nowhere, Harvard-trained tool of special interests that I can recollect.
Yes, he's nearly totally ineffective in a Jimmy Carter magnitude, and this "reform" will be also. The war on drugs or the USA Patriot Act bother me far more than this legislation. But it's just another duck bite.
We must stop seeing a strong central government as our national parent. If believing that makes me a teabagger and wingnut, so be it.
Stuart, was the Canadian single-payor initiative just a pathetic excuse for the (Canadian) libs to get their clutches into their every day lives and tax (Canadians) into oblivion? Or was there maybe something more to it?
Sure there was. Sure people are compassionately motivated. Sure they want to help the unfortunate. But they are misguided because they destroy the protections against a totalitarian state believing the ends justify the means.
It's the same as the people who (overwhelmingly) passed the Patriot Act. They were motivated to protect people from an external threat. But the result has been abused and is now seen by almost everyone as a terrible assault on liberty. I agree we need to help the unfortunate. I disagree that we can trust the government with broad powers. In fact, I think that putting these matters on the federal government is a form of the anti-social attitude you talk about -- since the government takes care of the problem, we don't need to care for our neighbors or our community. That's a bad thing.
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