Society’s “trade-offs” in action
by digby
A libertarian explains America, the city on a hill:
End Obamacare, and people could die. That’s okay. We make such trade-offs all the time.
That’s the actual headline. You see, the government doesn’t force people to live in padded rooms to protect them from any danger, it allows people to go to work and drive cars and otherwise take risks. Therefore, continuing a system in which vast numbers of people must go without health insurance because the for-profit insurance industry has no incentive to cover people who cost them money is no different. It’s just another trade-off for freedom:
In a world of scarce resources, a slightly higher mortality rate is an acceptable price to pay for certain goals — including more cash for other programs, such as those that help the poor; less government coercion and more individual liberty; more health-care choice for consumers, allowing them to find plans that better fit their needs; more money for taxpayers to spend themselves; and less federal health-care spending. This opinion is not immoral. Such choices are inevitable. They are made all the time.
The government coercion involved in making people buy affordable insurance or pay a very tiny penalty is so burdensome that we must be willing to make the “trade-off” of people dying for lack of health care. It’s a small price to pay for “individual liberty”. Unless you’re one of the dead people, in which case “society’s trade-off” for more “choice” might not seem like such a good deal.
But we can always count on conservatives and libertarians to be eager to liberate us from our lives. It’s what they do.
Anyway, this fine fellow is getting credit for an original idea. But we’ve heard this before haven’t we?
That’s society’s “trade-off” in action. Makes you feel so free doesn’t it?
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