It’s said that a man’s most prized possession is his health. Without good health, all else – life, love, food, etc., becomes, well, less.
And as much as I agree that to have a thriving and just society all members should carry their fair share of the weight, we already know that doesn’t happen (for many reasons). And because of that, I tend to side with the many that view wealthy tax cheats, be they individual persons or corporate “persons”, as those that have prospered because our society has afforded them the opportunity to accumulate massive wealth (i.e. more than you need to stay alive) as, well, greedy, tightazz cheaterz. Which begs the refrain-
“Why should I pay if they don’t? Why squeeze me when so-and-so has so much more? ”
Now there’s a sentiment that crosses party lines.
Here’s another one:
“Why should I support another persons bad decisions?”
Let’s rewind a little bit… It’s a conservative idea espoused by the Heritage Foundation to the Nixon presidency that for “universal” health care to work in a capitalist system, you must support the capitalists by mandating all persons pay public dollars into private companies. So, for some of you that tend to think on the right side of things, this is not a left wing idea. (The “lefty” idea is single payer to a public, not-for-profit entity). And to really make health insurance “equitable”, the healthy must pay into the pool as well as the sick
So the gigantic fly in the obamacare ointment is that I, a person blessed with good health should have to pay for the person who suffers from:
1) high blood pressure but still eats those salt bombs from mcdonalds
2) diabetes but still goes the bar or ballgame and drinks beer
3) COPD because of years of smoking or living in a community with extremely bad air
4) cancer because of industrial pollution
et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.
as long as there are people who don’t have faith in empirical science
as long as there are people who regard Michell Obama as a food nazi
as long as there are the mass of unenlightened (or just plain dumb)
and that a massive insurance lobby will say the individual mandate is “constitutional”
I absolutely refuse to pay into a system that would rather legislate than educate.
It perfectly matches our current for-profit health care system that treats the symptoms , but not the cause (can you say “Gas-X?)
In the words of my brethren from back in the day,
“Hell No! We Won’t Go!”
… and this, from a social libertarian.
100 MPH Daily 