Saturday, June 24, 2006
America! What is it good for?
This is a defination of Government-- "A social institution whose purpose is to resolve conflict and provide us with Life, Liberty and Happiness." I ask you is that what our Government is doing? I don't think it is. The bottom line is if you are not rich then tough luck. What is the point of living in a society, and that is what I assume we are calling America these days, when the average person can't get health care, can't afford to put gas in the car and can't even feed the family in some cases. My American Government teacher says to not give up. He, in point of fact, told me in front of the entire class not to give up. That if I dont continue to bang my head against the wall there will be no change. He says I need to support and believe in the SYSTEM! But the SYSTEM isnt my system! I have not voted for a winner in the last 4 elections. It seems that the system is geared to the rich and to the lining of ones pockets and for the looking out for number one!!!! Why not look out for each other? Why not make basic health care a right? How about everyone being able to afford to go to college? (I know those are crazy ideas Lance and how could we possibly implement them.) I would be better off I guess just keeping my head buried in the sand and not worrying about it. DONT GIVE UP!!!!! Easy for him to say and I hope it is something I can do. I want there to be change and I hope to help us move in that direction. Look out world!!!! Big Lance is off the wagon and back on the warpath again!!!!
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5 comments:
"Why not make basic health care a right? How about everyone being able to afford to go to college? (I know those are crazy ideas Lance and how could we possibly implement them.) "
Perhaps you should worry less about how they could be implemented, and more about what it would actually mean to require that they be?
Have you thought beyond the phrase, thought about what it would and must mean to say "Why not make basic health care a right?"
I assume you realize that for someone to have a right to healthcare, you are also saying that someone else must provide that healthcare to them... right? That it means that we, I, all of us must provide healthcare to everyone who asks for it?
You are not saying that medical professionals can, if they choose, provide their services free of charge, out of a spirit of generosity and charity and/or mercy... or just the desire to practice their callings as they are able - but that they must do so. And that all of us must divert money we might have put to use in college funds for our kids, or taking our families out for dinner or savings for retirement, instead towards paying for those expenses they need. Have you studied the economic realities which will follow from that? The waste that inevitably follows from people making choices about what they don't have to pay for themselves? The shortages which will follow from people choosing to take advantage of what they haven’t earned and likely don’t fully need, leaving others unable to choose what would have, but no longer does, exist?
Have you considered that Doctors, Nurses, Hospitals must provide their services to them, and must provide means that they do not have the right to refuse to provide their services, - whether or not they might have otherwise choosen to provide them, and that in order to make that 'right to' more than just a worthless mission statement string of words, means to have the Gov't enforcing that, that means that the Gov't can and must use the threat of force to impel compliance. That they, me, and you, are not the ones who have a right to make decisions about our own lives?
Have you thought any of these ideas beyond the first stage of what you think would be 'good', to what it will require, cause and prevent what people might have otherwise chosen to do with their time, money and freedom?
Thanks for you two cents Van. But I have thought about it and the money that we are wasting on foreign wars would start to fix the problem. But you see this is where we differ Van and if you had bothered to read any of my other writing you would understand that we probably will never see eye to eye on this issue. But thanks for visiting.
"But you see this is where we differ Van and if you had bothered to read any of my other writing you would understand that we probably will never see eye to eye on this issue. But thanks for visiting."
That is where we differ - I did read it, and most of your other site. The difference is you are satisfied that your simple annoyance with surface appearances are enough to justify your righteous anger with the system, I on the other hand take that as just a starting point for asking other questions of those I agree with, and of those I disagree with. As a college student, shouldn’t you be doing more of that?
But, you’re right; we’re unlikely to see eye to eye on this or any other issue. Good luck.
Fair warning: your warpath leads to The New Scholastics
Yeah Van is one of those smart alec barbarians that inhabit, or should I say infest the One Cosmos blog.
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