continued…

Unfortunately, reason has very little to do with why some people are trying to implement this system as well as why some people are in agreement with those trying to implement it.  At the very bottom of any argument in favor of government intervention (in this case health care) is the irrational hope that “pooling all our resources” will somehow magically “cover all our bets”.  This hope is that if everyone has to pay into a governmental “national health care fund” there will somehow be enough money to pay for everyone’s medical procedures; never mind that it should be obvious to anyone able to perform rudimentary mathematical functions this won’t work.
 
For the benefit of those honestly confused or ignorant of my summarizing I will expound.
 
If the people paying for health care insurance now are having a hard time paying their bills, how will they cover their own costs and 20 million (or whatever the latest frightening statistic is) currently uninsured people?  Also, remember, “everyone” will NOT be paying into this magic, collective fund.  Only people that work and make enough money to tax.  But somehow “everyone” will have access to it.  Until it runs out?  Until the government has to raise the debt to cover the costs and with every dollar they go deeper into debt every dollar in your pocket is worth a little bit less?  Until the rich doctors and pharmaceutical companies are taxed to the point that they are directly paying patients for the privilege of working on them and give them pills?  Until the doctors, hospitals and drug companies don’t have any more money, equipment or resources because “it should be illegal to profit on sick people’s poor health and diseases”?
 
There is also the irrational hope that if the government is involved the prices health care providers charge can be “managed” or forcibly “reduced”.  In case you hadn’t already noticed, I am a laissez-faire capitalist and therefore in principle against governmentally regulated wage and price controls.  But, it is of course possible the government can do this.  And it is absolutely certain that if the government starts to tinker with wage and price controls the quality of health care will decline and the sheer amount of health care available will also decline.  Regardless of how much envy you may have over your doctor’s Mercedes Benz and big fancy house, health care costs money to actually produce and put into use.
 
Underneath all the complicated, convoluted arguments and pleas for helping the “uninsured and/or underinsured” is an ugly little thought that says, “I know there will always be someone with more money than me to help cover the medical expenses that I can’t cover myself.”
 
That might be true for a while.  However, if you think this way you need to realize there will also always be ten times as many people poorer than you thinking exactly the same thing about you.  And you and all those poor people will all be whining and moaning about capitalism making this world “dog eat dog” while the socialist utopia you dream of will show you exactly how “dog eat dog” really works.
 
At this point I am risking overstatement and repetition, but…If you can’t pay for your own medical bills and insurance without government health care, how will you be able to when you have to pay for yours and ten other people poorer than you?
 
This is only the surface of the government involving itself in economic affairs.  There are billions of dollars in Farm/Agricultural Subsidies.  The government pays farmers to NOT grow anything.  The rationalization being if more food is produced the price will drop and more farmers will be out of work.  And there are billions in Business Subsidies wherein the government pays business that are unprofitable to remain in business.  The justification for this is that those people need jobs.  And there are billions dollars poured into Welfare Programs wherein the government pays people for not working.  I’m not sure what the current “explanation” is for that.  Or if there ever was one other than simple stupidity and the delusional enthusiasm for all the Great Society Programs that would “put an end to poverty”.  Right.
 
In a discussion of these issues one person actually told me that these programs were important in maintaining a “contributive society”.  I said then and I write now:  NO, they are not.  The farmer that grows food and gets paid for it, the food supplier that buys it and resells it to grocery chain, the grocer that stocks on the store shelves, these people are contributing to society.  And (at the time of writing this essay) I have a job at a small local college in which I teach the farmer’s kids how to use their laptop computer in an academic context.  Then I take some of my money that I actually earned by working and go to the store and buy some food (neat little circle of economics there, huh?).  I am contributing also.
 
I am constantly told I am being a mean, heartless jerk when I point all this out to people and then say something along the lines of, “The people benefiting from all these government handouts are parasites.”  OK, so I’m a mean, heartless jerk, but it is the truth.  Even if I didn’t have the courage to be a mean, heartless jerk and say it out loud, it is still the truth:  Parasites.
 
Of course, you might be inclined to say, “Yeah, but so what?  What if all this stuff is a conflict of interest?  Big deal…I mean how bad can it possibly get?”