What I Think About Health Care Reform

I don't think that health care is a right. The reason for this is simple. A thing cannot be a right if it grants favors to some at the expense of others. A simple example of this is slavery. A slave owner might misguidedly say that he has a right to property and slaves are his property so they shouldn't be taken from him. The problem with this is that the slaves have a right to liberty. That right belongs to them from birth and the owner's right to property cannot supersede it later.

People have a right to their property since all property a person earns ultimately comes from their rights to life and liberty. Basically, property is what they chose to spend their limited time on Earth producing. If someone removes that property from them against their will they are effectively subjugating the life and liberty that was used to create it. Slavery is the involuntary subjugation of a person to the will of another. Therefore, I think it is not unreasonable to claim that government sponsored health care, in which the property of some is seized forcibly to be given to others, is tantamount to slavery.

No Easy Answer

I don't think that there is an easy answer to the problem put forth in my previous post. So, I withdraw my claim that I have an answer. I think that the only thing that could be done is to alter people's fundamental nature to where they don't have the impulse to think they can run other people's lives. That would probably require both genetic and cultural alteration to a degree that would make us all guilty of the very thing we were trying to stamp out. The best we can do is to live our lives the best way we know how while allowing others to do the same as long as they cause no harm to others.