If you listen to this youtube clip, you may not think so…..
Must Evil Always Win?
We’ve all heard the phrase before. We must vote for the “lesser of two evils” each election season. That’s all we can do.
It is my humble opinion that this way of thinking is what has gotten us into the mess we are in today. The mess that involves massive amounts of government spending, regulation, debt and new taxes levied on the American taxpayer.
I’d like to briefly quote a few phrases from our Declaration of Independence.
The first quote warns against complacency and the inability to change:
“Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.”
This second quote follows the first, and sums up the reason I no longer believe politicians are the answer to any of our problems. It is us rather:
“But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.”
Some may argue that we do not currently have despots ruling our country. Well perhaps not yet, but we’re headed down that path. One example of this is shown when a majority of the members of Congress are still trying to ram through a health care bill, even though a majority of Americans oppose it. Now I must make it clear that I am not an advocate of democracy. As stated by Thomas Jefferson, “A democracy is nothing more than mob rule, where fifty-one percent of the people may take away the rights of the other forty-nine.” I am an advocate of a representative republic which is ruled by the Constitution of the United States. However, it is a major blow to the taxpayer when a majority of Americans are demanding not to have their income taken for the purpose of crappy health care, and our so-called representatives are essentially saying “too bad, so sad” in response. It would be perfectly legitimate if 99% of the people wanted government-run health care, and Congress voted it down. But we all know that would never happen.
Our problem is that we are no longer ruled by the Constitution. Neither party is following the Constitution. Yet every four years, we jump out of our seats to vote for one of them.
I am not saying we don’t need to vote for good candidates, because we do. But that is not the end all, be all. We need to be fully aware of what our Congressman and State Legislators are doing all throughout each year. And no matter what political party they are associated with, we need to unify and tell them no more new taxes, regulations or spending.
There are easy ways to give a few minutes of your time each month to find out what is going on with your Representatives. One of which is by attending your local Liberty on the Rocks meet-up, of course! We have plenty to learn and teach each other – so why not do it over drinks?!
The second is by locating a local organization that may keep track of all proposed bills and who in your state voted for them. To find out if there is a free market think tank in your area, check out the directory on the State Policy Network’s website. Many of the state-based think tanks are beginning to host sites which provide complete and precise legislative information for their respective state, so citizens can be easily updated and can then act if they feel it necessary. These sites include Michigan Votes and New Mexico Votes.   There are also great organizations to get involved with that are nationwide, such as Americans for Prosperity, American’s for Tax Reform and America’s Future Foundation.
The bottom line is that it’s not about the politicians or the political parties, it’s about principles. And neither side has had any for a while. It’s time we step up to the plate as the true defenders of our Constitution, and do something to clean up this mess. I say we start by informing ourselves of the importance of free market capitalism, and then pass this information on to others.  Only then will we have numbers large enough to truly enact “change”. And by change I mean freedom.
If You Don’t Want the Government in Health Care, You Must Not Have a Heart
Isn’t that how the argument normally goes? If you don’t want the government to provide health care for everyone, you must not care about people? Why don’t we take it a step further and name anyone a jerk that doesn’t want the government to ensure that every man, woman and child has food to eat, a house to live in and somewhere to work? Shouldn’t the government be in charge of making sure we all have everything we need? Well, I guess that depends on whether or not you believe that government should be able to take what it wants, when it wants, from whom it wants. We all know that the government doesn’t make any money of its own (ok, it prints money, but it can’t produce wealth), so how would it provide all these things? By taking wealth from its citizens of course. I don’t know about most people, but I always thought it was wrong to just take what you want from others against their will.
Besides, if we create government run health insurance, there is much evidence to suggest that it will make everyone in this country worse off. Despite what most people know about free markets, I think we all can agree that monopolies are bad and competition is good, right? If we allow the government to come into the market with a taxpayer subsidized insurance option, it will put most other companies out of business. That means less choices for us. Most people, except the rich who can afford better, will be stuck with a government insurance plan. Remember where government gets the money to pay for all of this. That’s right, the taxpayers. Is that an unlimited supply of money? Of course not. That means the government will only have so much to go around. What will they do to make sure they can give a little bit of care to everybody? They will limit what we can use the insurance for. How could they not? They do not have unlimited sums of money! It has already begun happening with the new US Government Task Force increasing the recommended age for mammogram screenings. Think that’s not the beginning of the government trying to save money? I would ask you to think again. And if you truly believe the task force is right in its recommendations, I’d like to know if your feelings would change had it been Bush in the White House.
Where a private company has to make a profit to stay in business, the government doesn’t. Does that prove that business owners are just jerks trying to make a profit? No. It shows that a private business has to ask for your money, the government just takes it. In order for the private sector to get people to voluntarily give up their income, they have to offer something people want in return. They have to give good service, offer good products and do a good job (so long as they have competition), or they risk going out of business. The government can just take money from the taxpayers when it needs to, so there is no incentive to offer the best service or the best price or the best product. Why should they? It’s not as though the Post Office will go out of business if it loses money. As a government agency that enjoys no competition, it is able to “borrow” from the taxpayers to get necessary funds. The bottom line is this: when companies must compete with each other and have to rely on profit to stay in business, they have no choice but to give consumers what they want. Government relies on their guns and prisons to get what they want from people. If you don’t want to pay them, you go to jail. Simple as that. If you don’t want to buy from a private business, you don’t have to. If you need a product or service in the free market, you have many choices to choose from instead of one.
We need more free market choice in our health insurance options. The government has done a great job of stifling competition, which has created the high prices we see today. We must stop that from happening if we truly want better and more affordable health insurance. Free choice, lower prices and better options? Now that is where the heart is.
