Dan McLaughlin

Voices For Freedom Read Columns Daniel McLaughlin
To Home Page Latest Newsletter Column Archives Click to get these columns for your local paper	© 2006 Daniel J. McLaughlin Asking The Right Question If you ask the right question, it doesn’t matter what the answer is. That is the concept of framing. You decide what you want the answer to be in advance, and then frame the question so that any answer you get moves you in the desired direction. The discussion of how the government will guarantee health care to everyone is one of the many cleverly framed questions in modern politics. It doesn’t matter whether the answer is mandated universal health insurance or socialized national health care. Whatever the answer, the move is toward massively increasing the scope of government in regulating our lives and moving closer to the socialist dream world that is the antithesis of American freedom. The reality that nobody in the entire discussion seems to be bringing up is that health care is not a right for anyone under any circumstance. There is no right to medical care, food, clothing or education, no right to automobiles or snow mobiles, no right to take anyone else’s possessions. People don’t have a right to anything other than control over their own lives and their own property. Every American, and for that matter, every citizen of the world, has the unalienable right to make choices which he or she deems best for his or her own situation. That was the whole point of the freedoms that are the foundation of America: “We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness…”. Everyone has a right to seek the best medical care that they can buy. It is unfortunate that there are people who are not able to pay for that medical care, or for food or other necessities. It is very fortunate that there is a vast network of caring people willing to voluntarily spend their time and money helping them. There would be billions of dollars more and millions of hours of extra time contributed if good willed people would spend their time and money actually helping instead of mounting expensive political action campaigns that distort the purpose of government. The tax dollars they seek come from the pockets of Americans who are the source of contributions and compassion. They seek to use government force to extract money from other people and future generations to build a bigger, more burdensome bureaucracy. The United States already owes more than it can possibly pay because of the irresponsibility of prior and current legislators and executives. Our leaders are now contemplating expanding that burden dramatically. A bankrupt country is no good to anyone except those who use crisis to consolidate power. The more appropriate question is how can we remove the government from health care to restore sanity and affordability, and to restore the freedom to make our own choices. The idea that the solution to the health care crisis is to put it in the hands of politicians and bureaucrats is like trying to douse a fire by pouring gasoline on it. Many good-intentioned people believe they are compassionate, but using the force of government doesn’t, in any way, give one claim to compassion. It only gives claim to aggression. The good intentions of the war on poverty didn’t prevent it from being a multi-trillion dollar failure. There are no fewer poor people after the false compassion than before. All it did was take trillions of dollars out of the pockets of people who could have used it for productive purposes. Compassion is a wonderful trait of the human race. History gives many accounts of people caring selflessly for the needy. Today there is an incredible array of charitable and non-profit organizations that rely on private funding to provide many essential services for people in need. It is highly unrealistic to believe that all compassion would cease if politicians stopped spending money that isn’t theirs to buy votes and feel good about their false philanthropy. People will continue their compassion of their own volition, as they always have. As our nation walks closer to the brink of bankruptcy, the time gets closer when that true charity will have to shine, because the pipe dream of government charity will explode like a pipe bomb. We can only hope that people at that time will realize the failure of relying on government, and return to the freedom and individual responsibility which made this nation great.
Contact us Privacy Policy
Daniel Mclaughlin Copyright © 2006 [Daniel McLaughlin]. All rights reserved. Revised: 03/18/08

Voices For Freedom

Read Columns

Daniel McLaughlin

To Home Page

Latest Newsletter

Column Archives

Click to get these columns for your local paper

Asking The Right Question

If you ask the right question, it doesn’t matter what the answer is. That is the concept of framing. You decide what you want the answer to be in advance, and then frame the question so that any answer you get moves you in the desired direction.

The discussion of how the government will guarantee health care to everyone is one of the many cleverly framed questions in modern politics. It doesn’t matter whether the answer is mandated universal health insurance or socialized national health care. Whatever the answer, the move is toward massively increasing the scope of government in regulating our lives and moving closer to the socialist dream world that is the antithesis of American freedom.

The reality that nobody in the entire discussion seems to be bringing up is that health care is not a right for anyone under any circumstance. There is no right to medical care, food, clothing or education, no right to automobiles or snow mobiles, no right to take anyone else’s possessions. People don’t have a right to anything other than control over their own lives and their own property. Every American, and for that matter, every citizen of the world, has the unalienable right to make choices which he or she deems best for his or her own situation. That was the whole point of the freedoms that are the foundation of America: “We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness…”.

Everyone has a right to seek the best medical care that they can buy. It is unfortunate that there are people who are not able to pay for that medical care, or for food or other necessities. It is very fortunate that there is a vast network of caring people willing to voluntarily spend their time and money helping them. There would be billions of dollars more and millions of hours of extra time contributed if good willed people would spend their time and money actually helping instead of mounting expensive political action campaigns that distort the purpose of government. The tax dollars they seek come from the pockets of Americans who are the source of contributions and compassion. They seek to use government force to extract money from other people and future generations to build a bigger, more burdensome bureaucracy. The United States already owes more than it can possibly pay because of the irresponsibility of prior and current legislators and executives. Our leaders are now contemplating expanding that burden dramatically. A bankrupt country is no good to anyone except those who use crisis to consolidate power.

The more appropriate question is how can we remove the government from health care to restore sanity and affordability, and to restore the freedom to make our own choices. The idea that the solution to the health care crisis is to put it in the hands of politicians and bureaucrats is like trying to douse a fire by pouring gasoline on it.

Many good-intentioned people believe they are compassionate, but using the force of government doesn’t, in any way, give one claim to compassion. It only gives claim to aggression. The good intentions of the war on poverty didn’t prevent it from being a multi-trillion dollar failure. There are no fewer poor people after the false compassion than before. All it did was take trillions of dollars out of the pockets of people who could have used it for productive purposes.

Compassion is a wonderful trait of the human race. History gives many accounts of people caring selflessly for the needy. Today there is an incredible array of charitable and non-profit organizations that rely on private funding to provide many essential services for people in need. It is highly unrealistic to believe that all compassion would cease if politicians stopped spending money that isn’t theirs to buy votes and feel good about their false philanthropy.

People will continue their compassion of their own volition, as they always have. As our nation walks closer to the brink of bankruptcy, the time gets closer when that true charity will have to shine, because the pipe dream of government charity will explode like a pipe bomb.

We can only hope that people at that time will realize the failure of relying on government, and return to the freedom and individual responsibility which made this nation great.

Hit Counter