Gov't healthcare = Slavery

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Sniperchoke

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A MINORITY VIEW

BY WALTER WILLIAMS

RELEASE: WEDNESDAY, MARCH 10, 2010



Is Health Care a Right?



Most politicians, and probably most Americans, see health care as a right. Thus, whether a person has the means to pay for medical services or not, he is nonetheless entitled to them. Let's ask ourselves a few questions about this vision.

Say a person, let's call him Harry, suffers from diabetes and he has no means to pay a laboratory for blood work, a doctor for treatment and a pharmacy for medication. Does Harry have a right to XYZ lab's and Dr. Jones' services and a prescription from a pharmacist? And, if those services are not provided without charge, should Harry be able to call for criminal sanctions against those persons for violating his rights to health care?

You say, "Williams, that would come very close to slavery if one person had the right to force someone to serve him without pay." You're right. Suppose instead of Harry being able to force a lab, doctor and pharmacy to provide services without pay, Congress uses its taxing power to take a couple of hundred dollars out of the paycheck of some American to give to Harry so that he could pay the lab, doctor and pharmacist. Would there be any difference in principle, namely forcibly using one person to serve the purposes of another? There would be one important strategic difference, that of concealment. Most Americans, I would hope, would be offended by the notion of directly and visibly forcing one person to serve the purposes of another. Congress' use of the tax system to invisibly accomplish the same end is more palatable to the average American.

True rights, such as those in our Constitution, or those considered to be natural or human rights, exist simultaneously among people. That means exercise of a right by one person does not diminish those held by another. In other words, my rights to speech or travel impose no obligations on another except those of non-interference. If we apply ideas behind rights to health care to my rights to speech or travel, my free speech rights would require government-imposed obligations on others to provide me with an auditorium, television studio or radio station. My right to travel freely would require government-imposed obligations on others to provide me with airfare and hotel accommodations.

For Congress to guarantee a right to health care, or any other good or service, whether a person can afford it or not, it must diminish someone else's rights, namely their rights to their earnings. The reason is that Congress has no resources of its very own. Moreover, there is no Santa Claus, Easter Bunny or Tooth Fairy giving them those resources. The fact that government has no resources of its very own forces one to recognize that in order for government to give one American citizen a dollar, it must first, through intimidation, threats and coercion, confiscate that dollar from some other American. If one person has a right to something he did not earn, of necessity it requires that another person not have a right to something that he did earn.

To argue that people have a right that imposes obligations on another is an absurd concept. A better term for new-fangled rights to health care, decent housing and food is wishes. If we called them wishes, I would be in agreement with most other Americans for I, too, wish that everyone had adequate health care, decent housing and nutritious meals. However, if we called them human wishes, instead of human rights, there would be confusion and cognitive dissonance. The average American would cringe at the thought of government punishing one person because he refused to be pressed into making someone else's wish come true.

None of my argument is to argue against charity. Reaching into one's own pockets to assist his fellow man in need is praiseworthy and laudable. Reaching into someone else's pockets to do so is despicable and deserves condemnation.

Walter E. Williams is a professor of economics at George Mason University. To find out more about Walter E. Williams and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.

COPYRIGHT 2010 CREATORS.COM


Please read and respond. emoSmile
 
"None of my argument is to argue against charity. Reaching into one's own pockets to assist his fellow man in need is praiseworthy and laudable. Reaching into someone else's pockets to do so is despicable and deserves condemnation. "


That pretty much sums it up for me right there.
 
I believe that sums it all up. Time for you liberals to holler, "calf rope."
Sorta like car insurance, the more wrecks/tickets you have the more you pay, + if you keep on, you get dropped off the plan, but the government does NOT pick up the tab.
The Dem-rats wanted Viagra for sex offenders on their plan. not really, but the Repubs thought of placing an ammendment to the fact that no Viagra for sex offenders.
 
I met my wife when I was 21 and she 17. Will not go further. We will be celabrating our 20th wedding anerversery this summer in Sarrasota. Good thing I don't need the Viagra just yet. Keep a selling. That should be the Republican motto. Doing a very good job of it.
 
The demonrats whether they need Viagra or not have screwed most of the country with this "healthcare" junk. They have succeeded in driving the wedge in even deeper with this unwanted legislation. The fibers of our country are but one or two blows upon the wedge away from being separated permanently. I wonder what the side with their hand out will do when the side giving the handout finally says enough is enough? It is coming folks and one had better be prepared.
 
cheez - 3/26/2010 3:04 AM

The demonrats whether they need Viagra or not have screwed most of the country with this "healthcare" junk. They have succeeded in driving the wedge in even deeper with this unwanted legislation. The fibers of our country are but one or two blows upon the wedge away from being separated permanently. I wonder what the side with their hand out will do when the side giving the handout finally says enough is enough? It is coming folks and one had better be prepared.

Same old gloom and doom rhetoric. When are the republicans going to come up with a solution to fix it, rather than the just say no to everything?
 
You have to remember; The president cannot spend anyhting until it is approiated by Congress.When Clinton was in, it was a Republican controlled Congress, thing were good. When Bush was in,second term, it was a Democrat controlled Congress, things were bad. Obama is in and it's a Democratc controlled Congress.
Go figure. It's Congress ..(D)
It aint Bush's fault, it's the Democrats that control Congress.
When you are raised by the governement, educated by the government,fed by the govrnment, housed by the government, work for the government...you're a Nanny Baby, in a Nanny State.You're totaly dependent on the government and you will DO exactly what you ARE TOLD to do by the government, because you are afraid of the government.
It is hard to fix anything when you are drowned out by lies spewed by the Government Controlled media..
Air America was a failure, The Coffee Party was a failure..wonder why?? nobody wants to listen to half truths spewed by Democratcs.
 
Bfish - 3/26/2010 12:00 PM

cheez - 3/26/2010 3:04 AM

The demonrats whether they need Viagra or not have screwed most of the country with this "healthcare" junk. They have succeeded in driving the wedge in even deeper with this unwanted legislation. The fibers of our country are but one or two blows upon the wedge away from being separated permanently. I wonder what the side with their hand out will do when the side giving the handout finally says enough is enough? It is coming folks and one had better be prepared.

Same old gloom and doom rhetoric. When are the republicans going to come up with a solution to fix it, rather than the just say no to everything?

The Republicans have come up with a number of ways to fix the healthcare problem in the US. One by one they were all shot down by demonrats striving for total government control of this 1/5 of our economy.
 
We are all slaves. Want freedom? A good way to start would be to stop paying taxes to satan. It's not about democrats vs republicans its about God vs satan. Wright that down
 
Bfish - 3/26/2010 5:28 PM

cheez - 3/26/2010 3:28 PM


The Republicans have come up with a number of ways to fix the healthcare problem in the US.

How? and where are these phantom proposals?

As always Bfish you are just wanting to start some crap. You know exactly what the Republicans proposed but got shot down almost instantly.
 
cheez - 3/26/2010 10:22 PM
You know exactly what the Republicans proposed but got shot down almost instantly.

The only republican proposals that I have seen are more of the same (ie the do nothing approach). If there were any that got shot down that quickly, they must not have been too good. That said, I fully understand both parties seldom take the same approach to a problem, however compromise must be offered for effective legislation. IMO republicans have failed to offer anything meaningful.
 
Bfish - 3/27/2010 12:45 AM

cheez - 3/26/2010 10:22 PM
You know exactly what the Republicans proposed but got shot down almost instantly.

The only republican proposals that I have seen are more of the same (ie the do nothing approach). If there were any that got shot down that quickly, they must not have been too good. That said, I fully understand both parties seldom take the same approach to a problem, however compromise must be offered for effective legislation. IMO republicans have failed to offer anything meaningful.

By meaningful I assume you are referring to the fact that the Republicans did not offer any proposals that involved government takeover. In that case you would be right.

This entire healthcare debate has always been about government control. Nothing more and nothing less. The liberals use their typical dog and pony show using Americans that have gone through hard times or have severe health problems. They parade these poor souls in front of cameras run by a willing accompliss. Then the sad stories are reported on the news for the touchy feely effect to try and gain support for something that is wrong. They make it sound like everyone in the country except Bill Gates is about to die at the hands of the evil insurance companies. Then folks get scared and sign away their constitution and rights for a tiny sense of "security" This is exactly what has happened here with this "healthcare" bill.
 
cheez, we already have national healthcare, called medicare, why not have insurance to go with it for those that do not choose their own? What specifically in the constitution does national health insurance violate?

PS I still have seen no proposals from the republicans that attempt to fix healthcare.
 
Bfish - 3/27/2010 9:16 AM

cheez, we already have national healthcare, called medicare, why not have insurance to go with it for those that do not choose their own? What specifically in the constitution does national health insurance violate?

PS I still have seen no proposals from the republicans that attempt to fix healthcare.

Fix health care - who says it is broken besides the liberal media that feeds us all sorts of B.S.? I see where an illegal can walk across a river, enter a hospital, have a baby and get the same care a working citizen gets, and then that child automatically becomes a U.S. citizen. Way to go - that's the land of opportunity is'nt it...
 
SpurHunter - 3/25/2010 9:13 PM

"None of my argument is to argue against charity. Reaching into one's own pockets to assist his fellow man in need is praiseworthy and laudable. Reaching into someone else's pockets to do so is despicable and deserves condemnation. "


That pretty much sums it up for me right there.


I agree. emoHoppingmad
 
finbully - 3/27/2010 9:23 AM

I see where an illegal can walk across a river, enter a hospital, have a baby and get the same care a working citizen gets,
Nothing new there, they are already doing that.
 
Bfish - 3/27/2010 10:34 AM

finbully - 3/27/2010 9:23 AM

I see where an illegal can walk across a river, enter a hospital, have a baby and get the same care a working citizen gets,
Nothing new there, they are already doing that.

exactly - the point is it is not new so why do we need ever more government regulation when the government already allows this. emoPoke
 
Bfish - 3/27/2010 10:34 AM

finbully - 3/27/2010 9:23 AM

I see where an illegal can walk across a river, enter a hospital, have a baby and get the same care a working citizen gets,
Nothing new there, they are already doing that.


Yep...how about lets start there!! Stop the waste that goes on with the existing system and stop me and you from paying for "illegal aliens" and anyone else that is MOOCHING off the existing system. If it wasnt for me and you..."the working man" having to pay for anyone who wants a free ride then I could go along with the idea of a healthcare system where we ALL pay a little into a pool and we are ALL on the exact same plan. Why should members of congress be on a better plan than all of us here on CFF. I mean it is US...the hard working americans....that like to have enough change left over at the end of the week to buy some gas to put in our boats and maybe buy a new fishing plug....we are the ones paying for this NEW plan. Whatever happens....its on the backs of ME AND YOU!!! I dont want to see people in need...who cant afford health insurance...get sick and need it!!! But its all the damn moochers that bothers me. Its the same damn thing as them coming and stealing your favorite fishing lure...one a week..untill theyre all gone and you cant afford to buy anymore. I dont know about you...but that PISSES ME OFF!!!! And these politicians being on a different plan than me and you.....I mean come on...WHY should they be???
 

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