October 11, 2009
Come on and take Free Ride
No this is not a post about the Edgar Winter Group, sorry to disappoint. It is yet another post about America's journey into socialism.
I was reading an interesting debate in the comments to this post at the Volokh Conspiracy. The post deals with the story of a retired couple in Massachusetts facing a $1000 fine because their insurance coverage that was one adequate under the state's insurance mandate is no longer acceptable.
In the comments there was a lot of discussion of the concept of Free Riders. It kicked off with this comment:
Underinsured people are free riders. Something catastrophic happens, and they’ll be in the ER, demanding treatment at their neighbors’ expense. The Joneses are doubtless comfortable betting that nothing like that will happen to them, but why should we agree?
Here is my problem with using the concept of eliminating Free Riders as an argument in favor of increasing Socialism: Socialism is a system based on Free Riders.
The concept of Free Riders is that they are people who get a benefit without bearing the cost. Since a large number of people equate "Government Provided" with "free" they thus consider government provided healthcare - socialized medicine - to be free. Particularly when an increasingly large portion of the population pays no federal income tax.
They are blissfully unaware (as in ignorant) of the fact that they pay embedded taxes on everything they purchase. They are blissfully ignorant of the fact that the inevitable reduction in the quality and quantity of care available to them represents a tax - that rationing of the care they receive is a way to pay for the system.
They believe they are getting a free ride.
Socialism is an attempt to evade the reality that nothing is free, by using other people's money to pay the bill.
The other price that everyone pays for socialism is the loss of freedom. When the state is buying everything for you, the state is the one to make the choices about what you can and cannot have. We have been crawling down the road toward socialism in this country for decades. The current administration seems intent on turning it into a sprint. I do not believe it is too late. I have hope that we can change the future. But we have to decide.
We have to decide if we are going to become a nation of Free Riders or move toward once again being a nation of Free People.
Posted by: Stephen Macklin at 10:38 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
1
Well said Steve. The issue that proponents of gov't healthcare (or any gov't service) don't want to address is The Gun In The Room. That is, what happens to those citizens without political privilege who don't wish to participate?
I'll tell you what happens, you'll get threats of violence. The retired couple in Mass can tell you all about that by now. They will either comply or men with guns will come to heir house and take them away. If they resist, they will be shot. Members of Congress and the politically connected elite will be able to opt out, but everyone else will have a gun to their head to fall in line. That's how a violent gang operates. How is that allowed in a free country?
Posted by: Wayne at October 12, 2009 02:34 PM (IGF0m)
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