The most obvious thing about Obamacare is that it is unjust.
It is unjust in the way that it forces responsible people to subsidize irresponsible people.
It is unjust in the way that it forces young people to subsidize older people.
It is unjust in the way that it forces everyone to subsidize big business like insurance companies, health providers, and Big Pharma.
It is unjust in the way that it forces liberal ideology about contraception and abortion on the rest of us.
It is unjust in the way that it forces individuals to get with the program while putting off for a year the mandate for employers.
And so on.
And that's just today, as Obamacare gets started. You can bet money that Obamacare will multiply its injustices in the future as the special interests work their will on the law and its regulations.
Here is a principle to guide us on this. Any government program, however noble its goal, will end up as a gross injustice, because government is force, the cockpit of power, where the powerful force the powerless to submit to them.
Let's take the great edifices of the welfare state and investigate the injustice in their foundations.
Social Security started as an attempt to relieve the poverty of the aged, at a time when old people were commonly poor and at a time when the age expectancy at birth was about 65 years.
But today seniors are the richest kind, healthy and wealthy, on average. Why are we forcing young and middle-aged people, in the middle of their great effort to raise families, to support people like me?
I will tell you what Social Security is: it is generational injustice.
I will tell you what generational justice looks like. It looks like a private savings system where people retire when they can afford to. What does that look like? It means that you can retire when you have created enough jobs for young people with your savings to yield a decent retirement income. The government's role in such a system would be to help, e.g., manual workers that really can't work past about 45 to 50 years-old.
Ditto Medicare. It encourages senior citizens to shop around from doctor to doctor looking for the magic pill to put off the natural ageing process, and it culminates in heroic end-of-life care that makes end of life a nightmare for millions of the aged and their children. We expect working people to pay for this?
Welfare is a different kind of injustice, because it discriminates against the "deserving poor" and rewards the scam artist that has learned how to play the benefits game. Back in the 19th century the charities all agreed that it was monstrous for the idle poor to make a higher income that the industrious poor. But now we have enacted precisely that program, and demolished the low-income family into the bargain.
We all know how liberal politics works. It is all "because inequality." It used to be that the left justified increased government power with "because exploitation." But that argument has worn a little thin except in the most extravagant circles. So now liberals argue that their big government plans are justified "because inequality."
And that is what President Obama was telling us in his inequality speech on December 4, 2013. We need a higher minimum wage, more education spending, pro-union laws, etc., "because inequality."
Conservatives must get out there with a new message. We must cut government spending "because injustice," because all government programs end up as a gross and indecent injustice.
The conservative politician that can sell "because injustice" to the American people will be the next Ronald Reagan.
It is unjust in the way that it forces responsible people to subsidize irresponsible people.
It is unjust in the way that it forces young people to subsidize older people.
It is unjust in the way that it forces everyone to subsidize big business like insurance companies, health providers, and Big Pharma.
It is unjust in the way that it forces liberal ideology about contraception and abortion on the rest of us.
It is unjust in the way that it forces individuals to get with the program while putting off for a year the mandate for employers.
And so on.
And that's just today, as Obamacare gets started. You can bet money that Obamacare will multiply its injustices in the future as the special interests work their will on the law and its regulations.
Here is a principle to guide us on this. Any government program, however noble its goal, will end up as a gross injustice, because government is force, the cockpit of power, where the powerful force the powerless to submit to them.
Let's take the great edifices of the welfare state and investigate the injustice in their foundations.
Social Security started as an attempt to relieve the poverty of the aged, at a time when old people were commonly poor and at a time when the age expectancy at birth was about 65 years.
But today seniors are the richest kind, healthy and wealthy, on average. Why are we forcing young and middle-aged people, in the middle of their great effort to raise families, to support people like me?
I will tell you what Social Security is: it is generational injustice.
I will tell you what generational justice looks like. It looks like a private savings system where people retire when they can afford to. What does that look like? It means that you can retire when you have created enough jobs for young people with your savings to yield a decent retirement income. The government's role in such a system would be to help, e.g., manual workers that really can't work past about 45 to 50 years-old.
Ditto Medicare. It encourages senior citizens to shop around from doctor to doctor looking for the magic pill to put off the natural ageing process, and it culminates in heroic end-of-life care that makes end of life a nightmare for millions of the aged and their children. We expect working people to pay for this?
Welfare is a different kind of injustice, because it discriminates against the "deserving poor" and rewards the scam artist that has learned how to play the benefits game. Back in the 19th century the charities all agreed that it was monstrous for the idle poor to make a higher income that the industrious poor. But now we have enacted precisely that program, and demolished the low-income family into the bargain.
We all know how liberal politics works. It is all "because inequality." It used to be that the left justified increased government power with "because exploitation." But that argument has worn a little thin except in the most extravagant circles. So now liberals argue that their big government plans are justified "because inequality."
And that is what President Obama was telling us in his inequality speech on December 4, 2013. We need a higher minimum wage, more education spending, pro-union laws, etc., "because inequality."
Conservatives must get out there with a new message. We must cut government spending "because injustice," because all government programs end up as a gross and indecent injustice.
The conservative politician that can sell "because injustice" to the American people will be the next Ronald Reagan.
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