Permanent link for article #0100:
01-17-2010
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The Christian
Science Monitor
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Subject: Too Fat To Fail!
An article by Paul Hsieh in The Christian Science Monitor titled
Universal healthcare and the waistline police starts
out:
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Imagine a country where the government regularly checks the
waistlines of citizens over age 40. Anyone deemed too fat
would be required to undergo diet counseling. Those who
fail to lose sufficient weight could face further
"reeducation" and their communities subject to stiff fines.
Is this some nightmarish dystopia?
No, this is contemporary Japan.
The Japanese government argues that it must regulate citizens'
lifestyles because it is paying their health costs.
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This is the fate in store for all Americans if we fail to stop
the current health care legislation from passing, for if it does, the
government will finally have a very powerful tools at its disposal,
allowing it to reach into the personal lives of each citizen and
control our actions as it sees fit.
Paul concludes:
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Just as universal healthcare will further fuel the nanny state,
the nanny state mind-set helps fuel the drive toward universal
healthcare. Individuals aren't regarded as competent to decide
how to manage their lives and their health. So the government
provides "cradle to grave" coverage of their healthcare.
Nanny state regulations and universal healthcare thus feed a
vicious cycle of increasing government control over individuals.
Both undermine individual responsibility and habituate citizens
to ever-worsening erosions of their individual rights. Both
promote dependence on government. Both undermine the virtues
of independence and rationality. Both jeopardize the very
foundations of a free society.
The American Founding Fathers who fought and died for our
freedoms would be appalled to know their descendants were
allowing the government to dictate what they could eat and
drink. The Founders correctly understood that the proper
role of government is to protect individual rights and
otherwise leave men free to live — not tell us how
many eggs we should eat.
If we still value our freedoms, we must reject both the nanny
state and universal healthcare. Otherwise, it won't be long
before the "Waistline Police" come knocking on our doors.
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Read the entire
article.
Paul has it exactly right, except that I would challenge him on one
important point. By categorizing our government as a "nanny
state", he makes the common error of giving the benefit of the
doubt to the government by assuming that its motives are all directed
in our best interest. Nothing could be further from the truth!
Our president and members of Congress know nothing at all about you
and your unique circumstances, and could care less about your personal
wellbeing. They have no interest in being you caregiver. That is
simply a convenient fiction to conceal their true intent, which is to
gain control over your actions and direct your life in service of
their agenda. And their agenda is nothing more than raw, naked
power. To them, you are merely a natural resource to be mined
until your productive vein runs dry. Look at all recent actions taken
or proposed by the government and identify the common denominator as
it pertains to the American public:
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Warrantless Wiretaps?
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Control!
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Declaration of Carbon Dioxide as a Pollutant?
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Control!
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Outlawing Student Loans from Private Institutions?
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Control!
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TARP Bailouts - with Strings Attached?
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Control!
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Nationalization of the Housing Loan Industry?
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Control!
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Nationalization of the Automotive Industry?
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Control!
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Nationalization of the Financial Industry?
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Control!
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Nationalization of the Insurance Industry?
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Control!
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Nationalization of the Medical Industry?
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Control!
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Nationalization of the Energy Industry?
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Control!
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Mandatory Community Service for All School Children?
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Control!
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Proposed Mandatory National Service for All Citizens?
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Control!
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And the list goes on. This is on top of the government having already
nationalized the education, utilities and transportation industries,
and heavily regulating the agriculture, manufacturing and
pharmaceutical sectors, to name but a few. Where once we were a free
people in a free country, able to pursue our lives in whatever manner
we chose, so long as we didn't violate the rights of others, today our
lives are so managed that it is extremely difficult to find some area
where an individual may act without first seeking permission, paying
a tax, or worrying that some agency might come behind and judge those
actions to have been in violation of one of the unfathomable number
of regulations that have been enacted.
Don't oppose health care reform because it is bad medicine. Fight it
for all you are worth because it is you personal freedom — and
the freedom of all of your family members — that is at stake.
And that is something worth fighting for!
Do These People Really Have Your Best Interests at Heart?
[Thanks to Cloud Downy for bringing this article
to my attention.]
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