Collectivists at the Gate

Whilst browsing my daily taste of news, I hit upon a series of texts that just sucked the life outta me.

First up, from Jim Henley I hear of Tyler Cowen's post on Brad Delong's thoughts on John Kerry health care proposals. After reading Mr. Cowen's post and then reading Mr. DeLong's post, I felt familiar emotions race through me.

How in Hell could Mr. Cowen review it and calmly state it was "one of the best economics posts [he's] read in the blogosphere in a long time"? Why, because it was dressed up in "serious" sounding terms, took a look at the players and forces involved, and Mr. DeLong made clear that What Must Be Done is a Complicated and Difficult Process? Mr. Cowen then went on to end his post with:

Health care reform is an area where no one (i.e., you, the reader, and me, the writer) should feel they already have a pat or satisfactory answer.

Actually, I do and it comes from morality rather than crude economic calculations: stop forcing me (and you) to pay for others' healthcare. Why Mr. Henley didn't opine on this is beyond me.

But ignore all that. The pigs feeding at the trough in that post are worth more attention. With insignificant exception, they all gleefully spent their commenting time nitting and picking through various ways to get the proposal to work. Figures and freedom are tossed about and private sector profits get a healthy dose of hatin'. Of key importance is this comment by "Mandos":

Like I said, for an outsider the debate is so jargon-filled and laced with history and ideology that it's hard to figure out what a given change to the system really means in human terms. Which is, after all, what this is all about.

This person wants to know what this proposed Kerry change would mean in "human terms." He had previously asked, "What does this do for the uninsured? How does this equalize access? Extend life spans?"

Alright.

How about this:

John Kerry proposes to tighten the thumbscrews on millions of Americans in order to provide a service the government has utterly no business in providing and will doubtlessly fuck straight up. The portion of wealth ripped from the taxpayers of the United States to fund this plan will be uniformly wasted and abused in ways that will surprise only Comrade Mandos and those with mental faculties similarly limited.

Perhaps that's not exactly what the Canadian wanted. Maybe this works better:

This proposal will further entrench and legitimize government theft from society. It will provide an artificially-created, unnecessarily rationed, price-fixed, and subsidized service to people and businesses who should be taking responsibility for their own desires and needs. It will "reinsure" an industry that has been simultaneously assaulted and coddled and distort a market that has long stopped reflecting reality. It will energize and bolster the prevailing winds of insanity that say society "owes something" to those who have needs they can't fulfill through their own efforts.

Metaphorically, it will attempt to force-feed someone to shit up a pole in order to paint it brown.

Mandos wants it in human terms and yet he's staring directly at a discussion on how to efficiently abuse humans and their property. The blind are following the blind.

On a related note...Duxbury schools banish birthday cupcakes:

Frequent classmate parties once had students consuming numerous unplanned cupcakes each school year.

"It would be 23 times during the year that other families would not be anticipating that their kids are going to be eating something sweet,'' Chandler Principal Deborah Zetterberg said.

© Copyright by the Boston Herald

Well. Now that the threat of "unplanned" cupcakes is gone...

Meanwhile, the Pope thinks I exist to live for you. And you exist to live for me. And the Catholic Church knows what's best for us all.

Thanks for ruining my Friday, you assholes.

Posted by Drizzten at June 04, 2004 02:46 PM