Does anyone like insurance companies? No, but does that mean we should totally dismantle our healthcare system? I have been increasingly concerned as I have watched the Obama administration and the Congress and the Senate make very irresponsible choices with our money and our freedoms. Regardless of your feelings about healthcare you should be very wary of any plans being put forth by the Democratic Party. Every solution they offer up, although couched in good intentions-like helping the poor, really enables and weakens the poor as well as the middle class. What they are really saying is that the average individual is too incompetent or stupid and is incapable of making their own choices so they will decide things for you. The Democrats value power and control over freedom of choice or freedom of speech. Since when do constituents become the enemy?
It is starting to feel Nixonian to me with the paranoia being pushed by Obama and his people-doctors are bad, insurance companies are bad, profits are bad, CEO's are bad, people that disagree with them are out of control lunatics, Republicans are evil and the government, run only by democrats are all good and above reproach. Everything a democrat says is true and morally superior to what anyone else could come up with. Ya think?
Who is crazy here, the upset people at town hall meetings or our elected representatives ? What happened to that rallying cry that led to the American Revolution-taxation without representation? My ancestors and your ancestors left Europe for a reason-do we really want to go back there? What country is the envy of all the world? What country really funds the world? Which country pays for safe keeping forces, for education, for healthcare, for food, clothing, water for the African continent, for Europe, for Asia, for South America? I think it comes from all of those profits the Democrats are so worried about. We in America have the freedom to make money and to use money and if you take that away you are not only not helping our poor you are hurting the rest of the world. No one will have the resources to give nor will they give in the degree that we have if given the choice. China does not care what happens to anyone outside of China, France has a puny economy as does every other country in Europe. California has the world's 6th largest economy. Do you really want to dismantle our free marketplace one industry at a time?
Obama isn't wanting to improve the healthcare delivery system he wants to control it. I know many of us are enamored by his smooth speeches and flattering words but I think you have seen by now that what he says is at best partially true and sometimes and outright lie. If you can't believe what someone says how can you allow them to change things that will affect not just millions of Americans but billions of people around the world. Killing the private healthcare system will shoot a giant hole into our economy which will have worldwide ripples. Killing profits will limit research and ingenuity so that we will no longer be the leader in medical technology and treatment innovations. Having the government run healthcare will increase waste, inefficiency and incompetency, think the VA, military medicine, Medicare and Medicaid. I have worked in government healthcare. There is no incentive to do your best-I got in trouble for doing more than my coworkers and making them look bad. We were unionized, did mediocre work and had poor morale and high turnover . You really want that on a grand scale?
Also, people have a gross misunderstadning of howgovernment healthcare is presently funded. Medicare is subsidized big time by private insurance-it does not cover its own costs. So yes they provide services more cheaply but because your insurance picks up the tab by shifting the cost to you. For example, Medicare will reimburse a hospital $800/day when it costs $1000/day and your insurance company will get billed $1200/day. This is true with every government healthcare program-you really pay twice-once with your taxes and two if you have provate insurance. Part of the reason insurance costs have syrocketed is because people enrolled in government programs have syrocketed. In California we pay a large percentage of Mexico's healthcare costs but without the respect of being asked if we wanted to do that.
True reductions in healthcare costs involves immigration reform, government regulations being changed, tort reform,removing barriers between consumers and services. None of these issues is seriously or significantly addressed in present legislation. They neeed to burn those 1,00 pages and try again.
Wake up America before your told what time to wake up and what you should eat and who your doctor will be and what banks you can use and who knows what else. One of the reasons I liked being an adult is that I finally got to make my own decisions. I'd like to keep it that way.
Showing posts with label Freedom. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Freedom. Show all posts
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Monday, February 16, 2009
The Forgotten Virtues
One of the basic principles you learn in Economics 101 is that there is no such thing as a free lunch. This idea has truth not just in the field of economics but also relating to our physical, emotional. spiritual and social selves. Anything of value requires the expenditure of effort, a conscious, determined action towards a desired goal. Since the focus of this blog is mental health I will focus on how our societies' arrogant assumption that there is a newer, easier way to approach life has led to worsening emotional health for individuals and for our society as a whole.
Whether we like it or not we are subject to certain physical laws. One of the core laws of our world is the Second Law of Thermodynamics which in essence states that everything flows to a state of disorganization or chaos unless otherwise acted upon. Translated that means that to stay strong mentally, physically, spiritually,etc. that you cannot remain in a state of passivity or inactivity. Staying at a state of equilibrium let alone improving requires effort. For example, we realize that to strengthen muscles they need resistance or to experience some level of opposition. Without that "stretching" which also involves some level of physical discomfort or pain the muscles get weaker, they atrophy. We see this with intellectual functioning-the old adage use it or lose it is universally understood to be true. It is fascinating to me that we somehow suspend this concept when it comes to emotional or spiritual health. People assume that these areas of their lives should be about avoiding pain and involving minimal if any effort. That emotional and spiritual well being should just naturally happen and not involve any effort on their part.
How do people grow emotionally? By having to face difficult situations and figure out their own solutions. By having to learn how to be patient, using mental discipline to overcome natural impulses. By learning how to sacrifice-doing what is good for the group as a whole rather than for their own well being. By learning how to think independently and critically rather than passively believing whatever they hear or see. By learning emotional and spiritual self reliance. All of these things are harder than what our society is promoting as desirable-namely instant gratification, sexual and financial irresponsibility, having it all, choosing to marry or have children when or if it is convenient or comfortable, or lately even redefining things so that it fits what you want rather than you fitting in with societal norms. Obscenity has become commonplace, vulgarity is the language of the day, materialism is the driving force and more recently now even removing our ability to use our creativity, intelligence, stamina and resourcefulness to solve difficult financial problems. If the government or the media decide things for us and seek to take away every opportunity to struggle and be tested then how can we stay strong? In a family if you want to raise strong, responsible children you don't do things for them you let them learn by doing, by having to struggle and overcome, by having to go without. You love them and encourage them but you don't coddle them or do it for them-that weakens not only their intellectual and physical selves it atrophies their soul. They can then have zero self confidence, no empathy for others, no ability to problem solve and will be a drain on the family rather than a contributor. We see this happening with many families now and against all reason we know are considering doing the exact same thing but on a much larger scale. Now our country is going to become the great enabler and we will undo all the great qualities that have kept this country strong. Our country has undergone many different kinds of crises in its over 200 hundred year existence-natural disasters, wars, economic difficulties, moral strife and yet we have risen above all of them due to the strength of the individual members of our society. The government is there to strengthen and assist it's citizens not vice versa. Countries that have allowed their governing entities to control them have become weaker on every level-England, the USSR, Cuba, Venezuela, etc. have not benefited from straying from the basic laws of physics, which some would say are God's laws. Removing the tension from our lives by trying to make things pain free only creates a different kind of pain-a longer lasting, insidiously slow path towards destruction-from the inside out. People need to be free to act for themselves, to make their own choices, to learn their own lessons, to use their own money, time and intellect. Freedom to exercise their natural abilities is what is best for individuals, families and societies. History has demonstrated repeatedly that there is not a better way to happiness and well being than hard work, self restraint, sacrifice, sharing, cooperating, living in traditional families, being actively involved in a religion and living under a system of government that fosters individual freedom.
Remember someone pays for lunch-it just who gets to decide who pays?
Whether we like it or not we are subject to certain physical laws. One of the core laws of our world is the Second Law of Thermodynamics which in essence states that everything flows to a state of disorganization or chaos unless otherwise acted upon. Translated that means that to stay strong mentally, physically, spiritually,etc. that you cannot remain in a state of passivity or inactivity. Staying at a state of equilibrium let alone improving requires effort. For example, we realize that to strengthen muscles they need resistance or to experience some level of opposition. Without that "stretching" which also involves some level of physical discomfort or pain the muscles get weaker, they atrophy. We see this with intellectual functioning-the old adage use it or lose it is universally understood to be true. It is fascinating to me that we somehow suspend this concept when it comes to emotional or spiritual health. People assume that these areas of their lives should be about avoiding pain and involving minimal if any effort. That emotional and spiritual well being should just naturally happen and not involve any effort on their part.
How do people grow emotionally? By having to face difficult situations and figure out their own solutions. By having to learn how to be patient, using mental discipline to overcome natural impulses. By learning how to sacrifice-doing what is good for the group as a whole rather than for their own well being. By learning how to think independently and critically rather than passively believing whatever they hear or see. By learning emotional and spiritual self reliance. All of these things are harder than what our society is promoting as desirable-namely instant gratification, sexual and financial irresponsibility, having it all, choosing to marry or have children when or if it is convenient or comfortable, or lately even redefining things so that it fits what you want rather than you fitting in with societal norms. Obscenity has become commonplace, vulgarity is the language of the day, materialism is the driving force and more recently now even removing our ability to use our creativity, intelligence, stamina and resourcefulness to solve difficult financial problems. If the government or the media decide things for us and seek to take away every opportunity to struggle and be tested then how can we stay strong? In a family if you want to raise strong, responsible children you don't do things for them you let them learn by doing, by having to struggle and overcome, by having to go without. You love them and encourage them but you don't coddle them or do it for them-that weakens not only their intellectual and physical selves it atrophies their soul. They can then have zero self confidence, no empathy for others, no ability to problem solve and will be a drain on the family rather than a contributor. We see this happening with many families now and against all reason we know are considering doing the exact same thing but on a much larger scale. Now our country is going to become the great enabler and we will undo all the great qualities that have kept this country strong. Our country has undergone many different kinds of crises in its over 200 hundred year existence-natural disasters, wars, economic difficulties, moral strife and yet we have risen above all of them due to the strength of the individual members of our society. The government is there to strengthen and assist it's citizens not vice versa. Countries that have allowed their governing entities to control them have become weaker on every level-England, the USSR, Cuba, Venezuela, etc. have not benefited from straying from the basic laws of physics, which some would say are God's laws. Removing the tension from our lives by trying to make things pain free only creates a different kind of pain-a longer lasting, insidiously slow path towards destruction-from the inside out. People need to be free to act for themselves, to make their own choices, to learn their own lessons, to use their own money, time and intellect. Freedom to exercise their natural abilities is what is best for individuals, families and societies. History has demonstrated repeatedly that there is not a better way to happiness and well being than hard work, self restraint, sacrifice, sharing, cooperating, living in traditional families, being actively involved in a religion and living under a system of government that fosters individual freedom.
Remember someone pays for lunch-it just who gets to decide who pays?
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