I
initially experienced a kind of foggy comfortable feeling as I listened
to a TV reporter announce that the healthcare bill had passed.
It amounted to the thought “I will be taken care of; I’ll have a
safety-net, all I have to do is ride along; here is one problem I won’t
have to think much about”.
Then I thought about it…
I do not want government mandated healthcare… not primarily because it
is impractical (inefficient, costly, or corrupt) – but because it is
immoral – and therefore impractical.
It, in fact, embodies the essence of immorality, by substituting
coercion for the ability of an individual to think and then act to
sustain his life. Just one
of the more egregious examples of coercion is the requirement that
everyone purchase health insurance under threat of I.R.S. audits and
fines.
Healthcare bill advocates justify coercion on the basis that healthcare
is a “right”. That is wrong.
Any alleged “right” that imposes an un-chosen obligation on
anyone is an act of force and therefore a violation of rights.
Force against the innocent is immoral and impractical because,
for example, in healthcare, it replaces a doctor’s judgment with a
regulation, a patient’s decision with a dictate.
It is this violation of rights masquerading as "rights" that is
making us morally unhealthy, and which will lead inevitably to physical
decline as responsibility for our own lives is taken more and more out
of our hands.
The proper principle of rights was identified in the U.S. constitution as: life, liberty
and the pursuit of happiness.
“Pursuit” means just what it says: you have the right to acquire
health care or any value you choose, but only by creating that value
yourself or trading your effort for the effort of others, i.e. paying
for it. Any “pursuit” that
entails force destroys the principle of rights and replaces it with the
principle that “might makes right”.
Once the supremacy of man's inalienable right to think and act for his
own life is breached, its opposite - dictates backed by force - fills in
the void. Being forced to
provide for your neighbor in the name of "helping" those who cannot or
will not provide for themselves is just a slightly lesser form of
servitude then slavery – the road and the destination though is the
same.
Capitalism provides a way to help others voluntarily:
get together with like minded people, or persuade others using
reason, and create a charity. There are many wealthy people who will
contribute to a well thought out and sincere effort to help the
deserving poor...Bill Gates and Warren Buffet are looking for ways to
spend the fortunes they have earned.
