The most basic of all knowledge is that forcing people to do things
will end up in failure eventually. People almost always resist when
being told to do anything. So it is no surprise, to a conservative at
least, when raising the tax rate does not mean we will have more income.
I have explained this on many posts, however since repetition is the
world’s best teacher, I will explain it again.
This country does have a tax problem. The problem is that there are
too many taxes and they are way too high. There is also a spending
problem in our country. The problem is not the military (Primary
function of the federal government), it is not the infrastructure
(Primary function of the federal government), it is the social programs
(NOT a primary function of the federal government).
Contrary to popular belief, the republican majority does not want to
do away with the programs entirely. As I have mentioned several times in
other posts, getting rid of those programs prematurely would be very,
VERY detrimental to the economy. The republicans and conservatives want
to, and NEED to reform those policies. Charity can work and can be
self-sustaining; we are surrounded by many private charities that do
more effective work than the government could ever dream.
Never mind that most problems in the United States can be directly
linked to the fiscal condition of the country. Most Democrats would have
you believe that the rich are somehow responsible for the well being of
the poor. If there are more poor people that must mean that the rich
are not paying enough.
Paul Krugman (apparently he is an economist) thinks that we should
tax the rich at 91% like we did in the 1950’s. He forgets two major
things, entitlement programs and the fact that we did not have a world
economy in the 50’s.
The other thing he is missing is the fact that people do not like being forced to do something undesirable.
Recently Britain introduced a 50% tax rate on its top earners. This
is the staple of the Liberal platform. Take from the rich and give to
the poor. They think they are Robin Hood, except that Robin Hood took
form a tyrannical government and gave the money back to the people from
which it stole.
So what happened? Did they make more money?
Why do conservatives say that objects or services are not rights? Or more importantly, why do some people think that the things they want or desire are owed to them by right? What is a right?
A simple Google search will reveal why "Rights" are such a hotly debated issue. In this post I will explain what I think a right is.
If you search the definition of Right, many different definitions pop up. Most of them being vague and open ended. To me the definition is simple, I believe that rights are things that God and nature provide for us naturally. To me a right in its most infantismal form ensures that no one other person can rob me of life and that I cannot do the same to another. Our cooperative existence is our rights.
In our country we have "rights" to many things. This is also where opinion causes our great divide. I have the right to provide for myself, I do not believe I have the right to force others to provide for me. I have a right to donate my time, services, or money. I do not believe that others have the right to demand them of me through force. You do not have a right to something as simple, or as you will soon see, as complex as a Pencil. You have the right to acquire one without imposing upon others rights.
This, as some might notice, is leading into our healthcare system and the debate that surrounds it.
Does someone in America have a right to "free" healthcare? Do they have a right to affordable healthcare? My answer is no. No one in this country has a right to anything produced by another.
Why do I think this, and how can I be so uncaring? It is simple, I do not believe that I have a right to anyone else's labor. I do not feel I have the right to put a price on the work that someone else does. I believe I have the right to choose and that right will inevitably get me what i want, at the price I want it at.
The healthcare system in this country is not broken, however, the legal system that surrounds it is. When laws go into effect that do not proportionally protect providers as well as patients, the market will adjust in order to create wealth equally. That is to say where laws go in that disproportionally support the consumer, the provider will balance it out by offering a cheaper quality product or charge more for the original product.
The very law that will force healthcare upon this nation, will destroy the quality of care we all currently have access to. It will diminish the system now that rewards the companies that have the best services at the lowest price, for a monopoly controlled by congress. The government will be running our healthcare system.
When the free market is truly free, competition and the consumer determine what the fair market value for the care they receive is. The reason healthcare costs so much now, is that the market surrounding it is not entirely free. Not in the least bit. It is surrounded by arbitrary laws that benefit trial lawyers who can easily file lawsuits against doctors for practically anything. Even with our current unfair market for healthcare the prices are PHENOMENAL!!!!
To go in for a standard visit and a checkup it can be around $50-$100. The majority of people only need to do this once a year. Now lets get crazy lets say you need a lot of work done and you get a lot of tests done every year. Lets say every year you need $3,000 worth of visits (About the average for Americans). And for some reason you are not taking advantage of the many private charities, or free clinics that RIDDLE the cities across the united states.
Lets look at other things we spend money on.
Women on average will spend $520 a year on hair cuts. If they color and buy product it can be around $1130 per year.
Americans spend about $1100 a year on coffee.
We spend $2,827 a year on entertainment.
We Spend $454 a year on alcohol.
We Spend $303 a year on smoking products
How about things that are essential to life...
We spend a whopping $17,115 on average per year for housing.
$6,462 for food.
$8,583 for transportation
My point is that we spend a lot of money on a lot of things. Americans in particular spend a lot of money on a lot of things that are "wants" and not "needs".
My question is, when did the cost of healthcare become so outrageous? Is it outrageous? I can live longer without healthcare than I can without food, or shelter, or even transportation to get the things I need. Why are we not demanding that those items be considered rights, and therefore free?
I am blessed with the gift of health, I attribute it to my lifestyle choices but also luck of the draw. I spend about $200 a year on doctors visits. Just normal check ups. I think this is a steal. A guy or girl who went to college for the better part of a decade, racking up bills near half a million to get a degree that makes them competent at saving and maintaining life, and i get to see him or her for only $50 (if I don't have insurance). Maintenance on my car every year is about $1000. Hell they even say on average bicycle maintenance is around $300 per year.
My point is that yes with a free market healthcare could improve. However for what you get, the price is pretty damn good now.
I know what you are all saying, "But Joe, that's only if you are healthy." This is true, but thank goodness for private charity and hospital payment plans. Very sick people have been getting free care for a long time now. This has only become an issue, because liberals make it an issue. Then they convince people that a corrupt government is the only solution.
I always wondered why all the free health proponents don't get together and form a non profit insurance company that takes donations to offer insurance to the poor???
When I did not have health insurance, and I went to get care, I got it, no questions asked. I also was 22 and had no money or a job. The hospital deferred my payments until I got a job , than accepted $5 a month, until it was paid or I put more in. They ended up cutting the bill for me after a certain time to do me a favor.
Healthcare is not a right, because it only exists due to labor form other people. The only way anyone can offer "free" care is to either take money from some people, and give it to others for the care (TAX), or force providers to give care to everyone regardless of the actual value of the service provided (Mandate and law). Obamacare is obscenely unconstitutional. It will do to healthcare what government subsidiesed student loans are doing to higher education. The existence will inflate the price regardless of quality. This will force the quality to drop dramatically because the money is now funneling through bureaucrats and not into providers who would use the profit to advance and become more competitive. If businesses have to compete against each other for our business the consumer wins. If there is no need or incentive to improve, they will not.
The rich will continue to get phenomenal world class care because they can afford to pay full price for it, while the middle class and lower class will receive whats left. This in turn will cause more outrage and ironically cause more and more people to vote liberal Democrat.
The job of the federal government is not to provide healthcare, education, food, or anything monitary. In a truly FREE society, the job of the government is to provide a means of protection as you or I pursue those very things at our own discretion. The cost of healthcare will drop if the government lets it. Common Sense regulation, mixed with open, free market capitalism will get us the best and cheapest healthcare money can buy.
It is no coincidence that the rich from other countries come here and pay full price for procedures they can get for free at home.
Obama has not only jeopardized the quality of care that everyone already has access to, but somehow he is promising to reduce the overall cost by adding a middle man...the federal government.
As mentioned before, watch this movie below. This is the beauty of the free market. It shows that it is not just a doctor visit you are buying with your $50, it is a network of millions of people working together to get you the service you require. Nothing is free, and when you really think about it. I cant believe how amazingly cheap everything is.
When Governor Walker took office, the Wisconsin state economy and
Illinois state economy were pretty similar. Both had major deficits,
both were having issues with unions, both were headed in the wrong
direction very fast.
This led Wisconsinites to elect Governor Walker. During his campaign
he promised fiscal responsibility form the state, and that’s exactly
what we got. Walker pushed through ACT 10 almost immediately. Basically
when school boards were budgeting every year there was a major
percentage of the budget that they had no control over, most changes to a
budget had to be voted by the Public Union, of course they never cared
about deficit as long as they got their benefits and perks. ACT 10 gave
the school boards (and essentially taxpayers) the ability to amend the
entire budget not just a small percentage of it.
One of the major amendments was shopping around for health plans,
instead of automatically reinstating the rate hiked union insurance
plan. Teachers were also required to pay 12% towards their OWN health
plan (terrible right?). This one change took a $3+billion dollar deficit
to a $256 Million surplus in only half a year! The act saved teacher
jobs, precious art and music programs, and other things slated to be cut
to try and harness the budget shortfalls. The very things unions would
be happy to cut to protect their own interests.
Illinois decided to go the liberal path, they caved to the unions.
Illinois leadership decided to raise taxes by 67% on small business
owners to try and cover their budget gap. So where is Illinois today?
Can you imagine a world where the beacon on the hill of freedom is no
longer the United States of America? I can, and it is that vision that
has the political fire in me burning so brightly. I have said this in
other posts, but being a real conservative takes a lot of patients, and a
level of hardness. You cannot be weak and a conservative in our current
world.
Being a conservative kind of sucks actually, we would want nothing
more than the utopia that liberals speak of. A world where people have
enough of what they need and are happy. The major difference between a
Conservative like me and a liberal is that we know the best way to get
there, and it is not the way we are currently going.
We know that when people succeed, it breeds more success organically.
The liberal belief is that the only way to succeed is to lie, cheat,
and steal. So it is no wonder that they lie, cheat, and steal to get
what they want. But I digress, CANADA!!!
At least they are going the right direction...
Canada, if anyone has been watching, is smart (or at least they are
getting smarter). They have been watching the world, and obviously they
have been taking notes. They have been watching socialism fail all over
the place, they have been watching our impending doom, and then they
have even taken pages from our founding fathers. I am referring to this
video below.
It features Pierre Poilievre, MP for Nepean-Carleton. He spoke to the
Canadian government regarding the 2012 budget. As the explanation on
the video states, he stood up to defend Economic Freedom for all
Canadians.
I truly believe Mitt Romney will be the next president of these
United States, I say probably because Liberals tend to take losses
pretty hard. They even anticipate losing by complaining, or over polling
democrats.
I have started to notice a heavy flow of excuse making by my Liberal
friends on the internet already. There are claiming that Republicans
will “steal” the election somehow. Or have even hinted at fraud! If you
do not see the irony and hypocrisy in the last statement, then you are
on your own.
With Michal Moore’s wonderfully articulate video,
the blatant lies from the left about where Romney stands, and what he
will do as President. Plus polling machines obviously hacked to turn
Romney votes into Obama votes. They will not take this loss lightly and
ironically are the ones actually trying to steal it. It is the age old
saying, if your partner is constantly accusing you of cheating, it is
because there probably doing it already. Continue at DS&P Mag
