The GovCo Filter
Gus Van Horn has written a nice piece about the Australian governments plans to further meddle in the lives of its citizens to curb what it sees as an obesity problem.
It leads with the recent finding that, on the whole, Australians are more likely to be obese than Americans and then notes the “necessity” of the government taking action to combat this “problem”.
Why am I placing the term “problem” in quotes? Even if being overweight always doomed someone to poor health, what difference would it make to me, in a society where the government does not force me to pay for someone else’s carelessness (through socialized medicine in this case) whether someone else is overweight? It would be that person’s problem and not mine.
But under a mixed economy such as Australia’s, the opposite is true.
This integration depicts a cornerstone of the destructive spirit of collectivist governments. As I’ve mentioned before, true problems are (and can only be) created by government. Examine what threats to success and happiness currently loom in your mind. High gas prices, soaring health care costs, crappy schools churning out idiots, religious barbarians killing Americans, tax accounting, that toilet that always clogs, inflation - all issues enabled or severely amplified by illegitimate or improper government meddling. All would be completely non-existent if our government acted within and were restricted to its proper role.
Void of statism, the just laws of economics and physics would limit the potential destruction of virtually any level of stupidity to only affect the stupid individual. Of course those closely related to or dependent on the idiot may be impacted, but they’d typically be the extent of the range of impact. If an individual ignores the obvious risks of obesity, he trades the quality and duration of his life. The smoker, the drinker, the lazy, the addict - all capable of destroying themselves and those around them, but the scope of destruction is acutely restrained.
If I want a toilet with 50 gallon capacity, I pay the water bill. If I want to drive a massive 4WD vehicle, I pay for the gas. If I attempt to live beyond my financial means I pay the price. Conversely, If I don’t see it necessary to work in order to provide for myself or my family, I suffer the fate. If I don’t consider my future when managing my financing, I will be the one with no savings to retire on. If I don’t acknowledge the risk of wearing my seat belt, I am the one who could die. In a rational society, all individuals hold their success or peril with the gloves of freedom and justice.
Instead, a bloated government acting outside of its proper scope amplifies and spreads the detriment of what would typically be limited to self abatement. Like a lense filter which distorts and mangles anything which passes through it, improper government empowers the vices attributed to any scenario. When the institutional mindset sees individuals as merely means to the ends of others, one mans problems whether self-inflicted or not become thorns in the side of all. With this crutch in place, why not get fat, drunk, relaxed or high. Why not placate my passive urges and indulge on whatever whim comes to mind? Why restrict my egalitarianism views to mere fantasies, when I can force those edicts on all? Why limit my altruistic notions to only my destruction, when I can force them on others? The filter can amplify any vice into a nation crumbling mandate.
Not only does the filter amplify, it creates. Consider all the violence, theft and murder surrounding the drug culture. None of which would exist if individuals right to ingest what they please weren’t violated by government. The black market, and its inherently dangerous aura wouldn’t exist. Instead, you’d have economic opportunity for a huge market supplying consumers with a product there’s obviously a demand for. Consider our high gas prices, which are solely the result of environmental regulations and taxation. Consider our rising health care costs, the result of political tampering in the insurance market, a subjective legal system, and the market imbalances imparted by medicaid and medicare funded consumption and their phony economics. All courtesy of the GovCo. filter.
The filter has deformed our economy into massive and mandatory, all encompassing insurance policy - one with no acceptance criteria and virtually full coverage for anyone who happens into the state of need. Additionally, the individual products of the filter are mostly ones bred for dependence and offer unlimited opportunity for human stupidity. As long as one mans burden is another mans responsibility we’ll continue to chatter in an reciprocal loop of destruction which will lead to the end of America.
The phrase is extremely crude and I’m hesitant to use it, but its fitting - we are in a self-inflicted, recursive orgy of economic and philosophical destruction. The only avenue to freedom, happiness and prosperity is to discard the poisonous notion that men exist to serve others, and to fully accept the truth that individuals are sovereign entities with unwavering rights to life, liberty and property, and who’s purpose is their own happiness.
- 06.21.08 9:44PM : edited to replace über-curseword with standard vulgarity.
