1. Government is not the enemy, any more than churches, schools, unions, businesses or anything else is the enemy. Government is made of people. Some are thieves, such as Randy Cunningham, Ken Lay or Jimmy Hoffa.
2. Government exists to perform certain functions for all of us that we couldn't --or prefer not-- to do for ourselves.
3. We vote our governments into office; we vote our governments out of office. Or at least some of us vote.
4. Sometimes we ask our government to require all of us to do something for the good of the whole, even though only some of us actually want to do it voluntarily. We ask our government to require us to go to school, follow certain public-health practices, to license our marriages and our vehicles, and to insure our vehicles. "Why?" you ask. Because there is a vested public interest in each of these areas.
For example:
A. You need to feel confident that people who vote do so with some level of knowledge, which is why you pay taxes to send them to school. Also, that they can follow instructions when you hire them, and that they can give you the proper change when you buy things from them.
B. You need to feel confident that people you encounter in public places are not carrying communicable diseases, and that the doctor who treats your medical problems is as qualified to do so as he says he is.
C. You need to know that the person who marries your son or daughter is not already in several similar relationships.
D. You need to know that the vehicle that damages yours is driven by someone who is able to pay for those damages.
5. There are some things that are simply too damned important to let people choose not to have. And when I say choose, I mean two things:
A. Be able to afford them but elect not to have.
B. Not be able to afford them.
I don't care if you have an HDTV. I have no vested interest in your having an HDTV.
But I DO care if you have a telephone or not. There are too many instances where a telephone is a vital, life-and-death device for either making or receiving calls. That's why the government passed a law in 1934 that among other things provided for "universal service." It doesn't mandate that you have a phone. It simply requires a telephone company to provide it to you at a reasonable rate, no matter where you live.
6. Health Insurance is one of those things that is simply too damned important to let people choose not to have. Good health is not a privilege in this country any more. It is a right. If the position stated in 4B above doesn't convince you, then the economics of "pay-me-now/pay-me-later" should.
A. It costs less to provide preventative care than to fix or cure entrenched diseases. (I cannot believe, for example, that my own health insurance will not cover me for an annual check-up, when the purpose of this is to catch problems before they become serious problems. No. I need to wait until I am visibly sick before I am covered for a doctor's visit.)
B. Sooner or later you will pay for the higher costs of un-insured people in the form of emergency-room care, premature death, etc. as charity or welfare costs. (When I say the costs of premature death, think of sales-tax revenues lost; think of the cost of children forced into the foster-care program as orphans.)
7. It's not YOUR world. It's OUR world.
There. I am finished. I doubt that I have changed your mind. Perhaps, though, I have opened your eyes to see a bit further than your own personal, what's-in-it-for-me or I-got-mine-you-get-yours interest. Like it or not, we're all together in this boat called Earth. A hole someplace risks sinking us all.
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