Thursday’s vote in the United States House of Representatives to repeal the Unaffordable Health Care Act shows just how divided the country is when it comes to what is the proper role of government.
It is clear to me that if you believe in government as the solution to your problems, you are willing to give up most of your freedom and liberty for the promise of free or nearly free cradle-to-grave care by that same government.
You do not believe you are personally responsible for taking care of yourself.
None of the decisions you have made have anything to do with your lot in life. So, what if you did drugs or imbibe too much alcohol. It is not your fault you did not study in school and went partying all night instead. You still deserve a job that pays $100,000 a year despite all of your bad choices.
It is somebody else’s fault that you do not live in as nice a house, drive as nice vehicle or have as many nice clothes as your neighbor. You like to wallow in a pool of self-pity and prefer the culture of “victimology” and eagerly vote for the anybody who promotes the “grievance industry”.
The opposite of the above are people who believe they are primarily responsible for what happens to them, based on the choices they make.
Yes, there will always be those who cannot take care of themselves due to accidents, disease or genetic issues – those people we should gladly and lovingly take care of – using private charities to whom we should eagerly give as generously as we can afford.
I am my brother’s keeper, not the government.
Some of us believe that free markets and informed consumers offer the best outcome for the most people of any economic system ever invented.
You only need to look at Venezuela and North Korea to see what happens when government replaces free markets.
We in the United States have some big decisions to make in the coming years.
Do we go down the same road as Venezuela and North Korea by passing more laws that allow government to interfere with our private lives by telling us what kind of car we can drive (CAFÉ standards), how much sugar we can consume (see New York City), whether that puddle of water on your lawn is a “wetland” (so you cannot erect a kids swing set) or how much water your toilet can use (making you flush multiple times in instead of once)?
I have more examples, but the ones I cite above are enough to make my point: the smallest possible government that abides by the Constitution as it was originally intended results in the best outcome for the most people.
Do not be so eager to give up some or all of your liberty and freedom for the false promise that somebody from the government will take care of you.
