Flame — HabitableZone

Flame » in reply to Not that I'm commenting on US affairs, of which I know little, but I did hear something from the Old Testament:

re: Not that I'm commenting on US affairs, of which I know little, but I did hear something from the Old Testament:
Tom Brosz — (archived)

Food is also essential to life, as is shelter, and many other things that are not assumed to be supplied to all citizens as a matter of course without cost from the State.

In many cases, those in real need receive subsidies or other help for things like food. I have no real problem with this. Americans get food stamps that help them buy essentials from private suppliers of food.

Nobody sane would dream of proposing that all citizens should get all their food from the government for nothing, or that the government should be the sole supplier of food.

There is no reason to put medical care into this category either. If some form of subsidy or catastrophic coverage for those actually in poverty is proposed, you would have my attention. And in point of fact, Medicare and Medicaid do precisely this. How well they do it is another story.

It's the insistence of the Left on turning the entire industry over to the state regardless of need or effectiveness that reveals their actual motive: accumulation of more power to a centralized authority.

Giving the government a monopoly on any service or commodity is a recipe for disaster. While you might pull it off for a while, especially if you are dealing with a small or isolated population, it inevitably results in political corruption, shortages, lack of efficiency, and economic failure.

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