Being a resident of Boulder, one need only spit in any direction to hit a person who views government as humanities savior. Be careful if you do spit though, especially if healthcare is nationalized, you’re likely to hit some gov-lover who’ll run to the nearest state run hospital to make sure the spit was sick-free - the commons will front the bill, and your loogie will end up raising all our taxes. Spitting will then be illegalized, so as to save on healthcare expenses.
We vote away our liberty (nationalized healthcare), unintended consequences arise (costly loogie check-ups), and government takes more liberty (loogie laws) - this particular example may seem absurd, lest ye judge, study the annals of humanity, this process happens all the time (more on this below).
I’m always reminded of the wise warning given to us by Benjamin Franklin (one of the more “statist” of the fathers no less): “Those who sacrifice liberty for security will deprive themselves of both.”
The argument is: Healthcare sucks. Since we lack the ability to reason why it might suck, we must place the problem into the hands of Government, surely they’ll fix everything. Insurance is too costly, people are going broke, the less fortunate are dying - therefore we have no choice but to act NOW! And of course by act now, we mean expand government. Pay no mind to the idea that mass theft and redistribution of property are immoral, it’s a matter of expediency, we must employ unethical means to attain our altruistic ends - once we’re all done healing, we can stop the stealing.
Putting healthcare into the hands of the government, we expand government (sacrifice liberty) to get “free” medical services (security). We often lack the foresight to see how certain problems necessarily arise when our liberty is sacrificed for the sake of calming our fears. Expanding government has its consequences, and when these consequences later come into fruition, we run back to government to fix the problems. It is perpetual, a tyrannical catch 22. “I fear. thus I opt to expand government power. The increasing centralized power of ruthless parasites inevitably creates more fear. The process shall start over again.”
Observe this same process throughout history: When government meddled with private banks in the 19th century, it caused inflation, economic uncertainty, booms & busts, wars, and general impoverishment - thus we let them monopolize the entire banking industry; there is now more inflation, bigger booms & busts, more frequent wars, etc. When government intervenes in the affairs of foreign countries, it arouses hatred for us, i.e., blowback (9/11) - thus we let them further aggress and intervene in the affairs of foreign nations, hoping in the future we will be more secure. When government panders to the lobbying medical industry mandating more regulation and further burdening the market, the cost of medical service rises - thus we run to government to nationalize our healthcare system, hoping further intervention can cure the problem.
No doubt Benjamin Franklin was well versed in his history, otherwise he would have never warned us about this pernicious process.
It’s really a matter of understanding causal relationships-cause and effect-something which an education in economics will greatly enhance. This is probably the reason we don’t have basic econ classes in public schooling, for fear it might arouse skepticism towards the actions of government.
Logic vs Emotion - Liberty vs Security - Individual vs “Collective” - Free Market vs Government - Capitalism vs Socialism - Principles vs Pragmatism - Sacrificing stability in the long term for security in the short term
The latter or the former?