Freedom and Responsibility

June 20, 2003

There’s an old saying: “He who pays the piper calls the tune.” As with most such simplicities that have withstood the test of time, we ignore this one at our own peril, particularly now with respect to the ongoing debate on healthcare. As we debate prescription drug coverage by Medicare, the single-payer system, HMO’s and nationalized health insurance as mechanisms to provide affordable health care to all Americans, we often ignore the non-monetary costs of some such programs, namely the surrendering of control over our own lives.

“If people want to be 200 pounds, then that’s their choice, but ultimately, if the taxpayer is paying for those choices, certainly, in my mind, that is where the justification for government involvement comes from...” So says economist Eric Finkelstein who recently co-authored a CDC study which found that obesity costs $93 billion per year with Medicare and Medicaid paying at least half of the costs. The study also found that the poor (Medicaid recipients) were disproportionately responsible for those costs, presumably because of poorer eating habits (what a country...the poor are the fat). So now the selfless heroes of public well-being, the trial lawyers and socialist-leaning politicians, have again emerged, their hearts bleeding and their fists pounding with indignation, demanding “social justice” in the form of...billions of dollars (what else?) from private industry, i.e. The Responsible Ones. Did anyone really think that after the $15 billion windfall they received from the 1998 “Tobacco Settlement,” they wouldn’t need another fix? And, as it did so well with “Big Tobacco,” government funding of medical care is again providing the justifying mechanism by which governments and law firms get a nice, juicy cut of burger and fry sales, all under the auspices of protecting us, the poor, huddled masses, from “Big Fast Food.” What would we do without them?

But how will it affect our freedom? Subtly at first: higher prices from increased taxes, regulation, and to cover the hundreds of billions hijacked by the law firms and state governments (a tiny fraction, if any, of which will actually be used to cover health care costs, if the tobacco model holds). But then Big Nanny will kick in: outlaw the Happy Meal (remember Joe Camel?); no government contracts to businesses who serve fries, “freedom” or otherwise, in their cafeterias; child abuse charges against parents of obese children?... And why would it stop with fast food? Any form of unapproved (i.e. ‘unhealthy’) behavior is a potential target... the cost so high in terms of money, harassment and hassle that they are effectively eliminated as choices.

Our quality of life is due to the free market, i.e. supply and demand. But if the supplier (Big Responsibility?) is to be held accountable by the government (via the trial lawyers) for the consequences of the demand, then he will supply only what is safe for him to supply, i.e. what the trial lawyers and government “allow” him to. I use the quotation marks because we are talking about legal products. We, the "demand," will have forfeited control over the supply by our refusal to accept the responsibility associated with it. So much for or freedom of choice, and deservedly so. Why? Because when we allow the government to become financially intertwined with every aspect of our lives, it demands and, perhaps, deserves more control over them. In other words, he who pays the piper...you know the rest. Thus those who love money earned by others (the trial lawyers), and who hate private enterprise (the socialists) appear so deeply concerned for our safety; not because they are altruistic, but because they have everything to gain. The physicians and scientists concerned about obesity for health reasons are considered but “useful idiots” in white coats to this ambitious lot.

With freedom comes responsibility, and if we allow ourselves to be treated as un-responsible, as when we hold McDonalds to blame for our obesity, or Philip Morris for our lung cancer, then before long we will be treated as un-free. Please remember this when you decide whether or not you want the government to pay for your health care.