People everywhere have problems. Someone somewhere is living on the street and doesn’t know how they will feed their kids. Someone just lost their job and will probably have their home repossessed by the bank. Some farmer lost all of his crops to a drought and will probably have to declare bankruptcy. Someone just found out they have cancer and doesn’t know how they will pay the medical bills.
These are all sad stories, and if you know someone who is in a situation like this, I hope you will do what you can to make their life a little easier. That’s where positive change begins — with people. Individuals who care.
When the government tries to fix things, it NEVER works. I challenge anyone to point out a government program that meets the following criteria:
- This program had/has a clearly defined goal with an easily quantifiable measure for success.
- This program had/has a clearly defined budget with no allowance for corruption or financial mismanagement, and has accountability stop-gaps built in.
- This program was/is not simply the result of badgering by special interest or political posturing during an election year.
- This program had/has a provision that allows for its dissolution if it did/does not meet the clearly defined and quantifiable goals, thus guaranteeing that money spent on the program will not be wasted.
- This program didn’t/doesn’t hold any possibility of eroding personal privacy rights.
- This program could not be avoided simply by letting a private enterprise do it better and more cheaply.
When I think about nationalizing health care, I can’t help but see it through to it’s natural end in my mind’s eye.
Once the government is the vendor, it is up to the government who they will and won’t service. If they are the ones with that role, can they not also decide the criteria for that decision?
What if you’re a parent who spanks their kids? When your kid goes in for their government-mandated checkup (and they *will* mandate your preventive care, which is another right you will lose — the right to *not* go to the doctor), what types of questions will the doctor be required to ask them? Will you be allowed to be in the same room during the checkup? Will their checkup also include a mandatory psychiatric evaluation (after all, we need to stop those school shootings before they happen, right)?
When there just aren’t enough doctors to go around (mostly because they will no longer have a financial incentive to become doctors) and the rationing begins, how much of a say do you think you’ll have? Maybe your kid was born with Downs Syndrome. Since they don’t have much of a chance at a normal life anyway, why not put them at the back of the line? We’ve already been so desensitized by abortion anyway, I doubt government-mandated euthanasia will phase us that much. Let’s just have a cut-off, shall we? Who do you know that’s really much use to society past the age of, oh say……75?
Maybe when there aren’t enough doctors, the government will decide it’s time for them to get into the business of deciding who will become doctors. Maybe we just won’t have the luxury of letting people choose a career for themselves anymore.
People will read this and say I’m being extreme. It’s not. This is already beginning to happen in some parts of the world. Why? Because it’s the natural progression when a heartless, bureaucratic entity takes charge of anything. Their ultimate goal is taking your money, shutting you up, and staying in office. The government does not care about individuals. The next time one of the Presidential candidates talks about “government with a heart” or some such nonsense, they should be immediately tossed from the race.
Government is not supposed to *feel*. Government is supposed to facilitate peace and opportunity. Government does not belong in the business of handing out favors, playing favorites, or finding new ways to spend our money. Lately, this is all they’ve been doing.
Does your government speak for you, or do you speak for your government? You are supposed to be the voice. You are the one who got first mention in the U.S. Constitution — not THEM.
Look at what our federal government has become? Look at their track record.
WE ARE THE COUNTRY. We are in charge. THEY don’t get to have power over us unless we cede it to them. Don’t give them another shred of power over you.
Virtually every state and local service is now tied to federal funding. This makes every municipality beholden to the desires of the federal government for fear of losing funding. You don’t think the exact same thing will happen with health care?
Think this through and play it out to its natural end. I hope you will see it for what it is: another brick in the wall of government oppression — albeit disguised as a safety net for everyone — that will ultimately separate us completely from our personal freedoms. I feel safer already.
Filed by JP at 3:50 am under Rants, Government, Democracy
