Monday, November 9, 2009

Reflecting on the Fall of the Berlin Wall and Health Care

Today commemorates the 20th anniversary of the falling of the Berlin Wall.  Although Obama is too busy to take the time to reflect on this historic event, I will take some time to do so. 

As an American during the Cold War period, I couldn't imagine how frightening it would be to wonder if the Kremlin is going to bomb America today.  It would have been even worse as someone actually living in the Eastern Bloc--deprived of economic choices and freedom to live one's life as one chooses.  I would not be able to tolerate living under the oppression of a totalitarian state.  Without going into a historical diatribe as to why Communism is inferior and inherently deprives man of life, I think it is better to see how the lessons of Communism can be applied to this century.

After the Berlin Wall fell, it became evident that classical liberalism prevailed.  A command economy combined with the deprivation of human rights leads to disaster.  Anybody who encroaches on life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness, whether that be a domestic or foreign entity, is no friend of freedom.  These might sound like buzz-words that those on the Right use to invoke some sense of patriotism or some vague notion of freedom (and some do use them for incitement), but matter of fact is that a true notion of freedom is one of the essential cornerstones of libertarianism. 

On my way to work today, I was reading one of John Stossel's books, Myths, Lies, and Downright Stupidity. Stossel, being a libertarian himself, points out how Big Business is the bad guy, and how the government has to play a messianic role in mitigating the situation.  Yes, there are a few situations that shock us all--Enron and the Bernie Madoff scandal are but two of these examples of "Big Business gone bad."  But, as Stossel points out, these situations are few and far in between, not to mention that they don't get away with it for long.  That's the joy of the Invisible Hand.  Consumers find out unscrupulous business practices, they let other consumers know, and the business goes under.  There's such an empowerment with a free-market system, which is quite the contrary of what you got with the command economy of the former Soviet Union.  The domestic enemy, in this case, are those in the government who like to control the markets. 

John Stossel brings up the blatantly obvious fact of how price controls harm the economy. This is true, whether it's in rent control, where there's an artificial price ceiling that stunts the landlord's incentive to create better living quarters. It's also true for minimum wage, which creates a disincentive for employers to hire the poorer citizens of America, the very people that those left-winged statists claim they're helping.
The most recent, not to mention controversial, form of this price control is in the process of occurring to a sixth of our economy, i.e. the health care industry. Instead of having doctors making decisions for patients, you'll have bureaucrats, who happen to receive privatized health care plans, forcing you to take the public option. Although it might seem innocuous, this is how erosion of rights occurs. It's under the guise of "health care access to all," or "helping out those in need." Those one-liners are used to creep up on our inherent rights to do what we want with our own money and choose whatever health care plan we would like. Power over health care is literally power over life and death. I already previously discussed this when discussing the inevitability of rationing health care and how the elderly will receive inadequate health care, and that would be if they'd be lucky enough to receive any health care at all. What has the government done to merit this level of power? If the government cannot handle something as simple as the Post Office, Amtrak, or Cash for Clunkers, why should I trust them with my personal longevity? Talking about "my body, my choice!" You'd think the liberals would be with me on this one, but I guess that would be asking too much, like being consistent with one's principles. What needs to be done right now is to put significant amounts of pressure on the Senate to not pass this outrageous invasion of health care rights. Anything short of that will have our health care system ending up like that of Canada, if not something worse.   

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