I was posed a question by the reader wjv in an earlier thread, asking me if I could work some of my ideas on the nature of government, and the freedoms of individuals and groups, into a few thoughts on health care.  I must admit that I find it interesting that anyone would care what I think about it, but it was a great question/suggestion, and provided quite a bit of food for thought as I wandered the crisp, breezy woods yesterday afternoon.

wjv had this to say:

I, a libertarian, would support public sourced funding for medical services/insurance pertaining to contagious afflictions because an individual can suffer the consequences of such an affliction through no real fault of their own, even despite efforts to combat the risk.

My response would be:

I’m tickled pink that you support the public sourced funding for medical services pertaining to contagious afflictions.  But I’m not that caring a person.  I’m sorry that people are oppressed the world over, but I am not pulling any muscles in my breakneck race down to the nearest Army recruiting office to go help put an end to it.  It’s irrational to give up your life for anything less valuable than your life. 

And I should be free to have such an opinion, correct?  Why should I face compulsory participation, with punishments for disobedience, for someone else, at no gain?

And make no mistake, when ever public funds are used, someone is getting stiffed.  In the case of public funded health care, it’s the taxpayer, and to some extent, the doctor.

See, there is no such thing as a free lunch.  That treatment costs something.  Now, with the government in charge, one of three things has to happen.  1) They refuse to pay the doctor,   2) they take the money to pay the doctor from someone else at gun point, or 3) a combination of both occurs, as we currently see with Medicaid and Medicare.

Now, we’re faced with a conundrum.

The United States was founded on the idea of the citizen having the “right” to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.  While I do not agree with the idea of an “inalienable right”, I do believe that we should be free to own our lives and property.  Those who do not own property are slaves.  They are property.

Property rights are the foundation for all other rights.  Your property includes your life.  You must be free to own property if you are free to own your own life.  Your finite amount of life is really the only thing of any value that a person can possess, and for most of us, trading away life, at work for a paycheck, is the only way to convert your inherent value (your life) for material, tangible goods.  If you must work 50 hours to have the money to buy something, say a nice TV, and someone steals that TV from you, haven’t they, in essence, stolen your life from you?  The hours spent working for the TV are meaningless to you, you have nothing to show for them.  Someone else is enjoying the benefits of your labor, your life, with a minimal expenditure of their own (the effort required to jank your set, probably less than the 50 hours you spent at work).

Now, let’s examine the situation, but this time, the robber is the government.  Why should the government have the freedom to take my life, my property, which is what they do with every tax?  Do I not possess the freedom to my life and its rewards?  How can the government created from the idea of “inalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” revoke those rights at whim?

I’m reminded of a quote from President Benjamin Harrison:

There is no security for the personal and political rights of any man in a community where any man is deprived of his personal and political rights.

I look at health care the way I look at the draft for the military.  Why should some dusty, old bureaucrat have the power to order me to my death at his whim, or for a political favor, and give me no alternative but jail or death?  That’s not freedom.  That’s not liberty.  The government shouldn’t have the power to kill an innocent citizen, which is what most draftees were, and certainly what most citizens being taxed for a public health care plan of any form will be.

I am pro-military, and I support our troops, who volunteer, 100%.  They do a job I’m not willing to do.  But they volunteered.  There is a moral rightness inherent in volunteering, in doing charity work, that is not given to the individual when they aren’t given a choice because of government mandate.  They try to tell us that “National Health Care is the only moral choice American can make.”, but it ceases to be moral, it ceases to even be a choice, once the program is in place.  There is no sense of self righteousness about it, you earn no reward of good feelings.  You didn’t make the choice to give your life to these people.  It was taken from you, by force, and given at the whims of a vote buying politician…  I value my life more than I value his re-election, you’d better believe me.

The majority should be restrained from harming the minority, which is what voting to tax people for redistributive purposes really is.  The majority does not have the legal nor moral authority to revoke my freedom to life.  But it is certainly capable of it, and in the end that’s all that really matters, isn’t it?

This wasn’t written to sound heartless.  I continually attempt to try to lift up those around me, I try to help when and where I can, but I will not be made a slave to the needs of others, because there is an infinite amount of “need”, and I only have so much life (time) to give.  Without restrictions, it wouldn’t be but the blink of an eye before some politician sold you into slavery for the votes of five other people somewhere else.

If you give the government an inch, it’ll take and take until there is a bloody revolution.  This is the way of power, of government, throughout history.  It does not get smaller.  Thus, I would prefer that there exist no method by which my life is taken from me, my daughter’s future taken from her, to go to service the nameless, faceless “need of others” bogeyman that I’m always supposed to be meditating on and frightened by.  Nope, I can do without it.

Set up a charity for these people.  Let individuals choose to make a sacrifice so that they can at least purchase some measure of moral superiority for it.  Value for value, it’s the capitalist way.

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