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David McElroy

making sense of a dysfunctional culture

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Idiots want people to have health care, but want others to pay for it

By David McElroy · October 8, 2013

Surprised manI might have found the person who most strongly represents the kind of thinking that leads people to support really bad government action. Cindy Vinson is a San Jose, Calif., woman who calls herself a big supporter of ObamaCare. But after she found out what it’s going to cost her money, she whined about it to a newspaper.

Although she wants other people to have health care, she found out last week that changes brought about by the law mean her policy will cost $1,800 more per year than before.

“I want people to have health care,” Vinson said. “I just didn’t realize I would be the one who was going to pay for it personally.”

Seriously. She said that. It’s not satire.

And that is the idiocy and the hypocrisy of supporters of these “social programs.” People such as Vinson are happy to vote for benefits for certain people — as long as they can demand that other people pay for their “generosity.”

This is the core moral problem with the system we have today. People can consider themselves kind-hearted and generous, but demand that “the rich” pay for what they want other people to have.

Let’s be honest. We’d all like for everyone to have a perfect life. And even if people can’t have perfect lives, we would at least like them to have minimally acceptable lives. Some of us are willing to give to others when we have money to give. (I’ve certainly given a lot of money — voluntarily — to help others when I’ve been able to afford it.) But certain people are willing to insist that government force be used to give other people what they want. They’re frequently surprised, though, when the barrel of a government gun is metaphorically pointed at them.

Some people tell me that they don’t see the gun, but it seems obvious to me. Government is nothing but force or threat of force. If you pass legislation demanding that people turn over money in taxes — or that they must buy a certain product, such as insurance — you have only one ultimate way of enforcing that demand. You have to be willing to arrest people who disobey.

The threat of force is why people obey unjust laws that steal their money.

If you want to give money to help poor people buy health insurance, you don’t need to pass legislation to do that. You only need to pass legislation when you are demanding that other people pay what you want them to pay, against their will. And the threat of force is the only reason those other people obey your will. That’s where the gun is.

If a mafia goon comes to your business and demands money, you pay him the money. Why? It’s not because you have a moral obligation. It’s not because you want to pay. He doesn’t have to wave a gun in your face. The threat is implied. The threat is real. That’s what government is.

Cindy Vinson is the prototypical “compassionate” voter. She wants other people to have what they want and need, but she doesn’t want to give it to them. She wants other people to pay for her “compassion.” She’s unhappy when she finds out that she has to pay for what she said she wanted.

This isn’t a political issue. It’s a moral issue.

You either understand that theft is wrong or you don’t. If it’s wrong for me to take your money by threat of force and give it to someone else, it’s just as wrong for you to empower government goons to do the same for you.

Until people understand that theft is immoral and forcing other people to obey their will is slavery, we’re going to continue to be a sick society.

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On a live awards show Sunday night, one man made a joke about a female celebrity. The husband of the celebrity was offended and hit the man who made the joke. Or maybe it was staged for entertainment. Who knows? Who cares? Social media is full of discussion — and even arguments — about this idiocy today. This baffles me. Let’s assume for a moment that the event happened as reported. People have been having such idiotic fights ever since there have been humans. Half the bars in the world see such brief dustups regularly. It simply doesn’t matter. The fact that so many people believe they need to talk about this — or even need to have opinions about it — is more evidence of the bizarre media brainwashing that convinces many to care passionately about brain-dead trivia. Your life will be happier and saner if you focus on yourself, your family and your friends, not on whatever scripted (or spontaneous) bilge that the media wants to pipe into your home.

I’m in the middle of migrating this website to new servers this week. This means you might encounter some unexpected behavior until I get all the bugs worked out. Clicking on my links (including this one) might cause your browser to give you the message that it’s a site without a current security certificate. It’s not actually unsafe, but there’s something which isn’t yet set up for the security certificate. I apologize for any such errors you might encounter while the process is going on. If you notice any problems with content which didn’t migrate properly, I would appreciate you letting me know the details at davidmcelroy@mac.com. Thanks for your patience.

I often wonder what animals think when they look at us and consider the society we’ve created. Yes, I know this is fanciful and unrealistic, but what if they could? Would they be astounded at how we treat each other? Would they be disgusted by the ugliness and pettiness which fill so many of our daily interactions? The truth is that I’m feeling pretty disgusted with humanity tonight. I made the mistake of reading some online interactions that I should have avoided — and it sickened me. The people involved appeared to be vile and stupid and arrogant. I wish I could pretend they’re a tiny minority, but I know better. It’s times such as this when I most need to escape much of “civilization” and disconnect from their world. If humans are going to be worthy of “ruling this planet,” we have a lot of growth to do. And I fear that growth is nowhere in sight. So my buddy Thomas, above, and all of his friends would be right to judge us harshly — and to think, “Why do you folks get to be in charge?”

I should have expected this, but I honestly didn’t. The article I wrote last week about disagreements over treatment for autistic children brought me angry emails. You could almost call it “hate mail.” Of the five emails about it so far, two have been to tell me that I’m wrong to even listen to critics of the most popular therapy for autistic children — and the other three tell me I’m wrong for not condemning the treatment as the “obvious” abuse it is. If you read the article, you know I didn’t take a position on the issue, because I simply don’t know enough to have an opinion. But by talking about the issue, I stepped into a heated controversy. The emails from the two sides convinced me of nothing. But they did give me even more empathy for the unfortunate parents who have to figure out for themselves where the truth lies for their children.

Have you ever had what you thought was a new idea — and then discovered that “old you” had the same idea years ago? I had that experience tonight. And it’s been wonderful. I came up with an idea tonight for a very short satirical film that would be a promotion for a fictitious college. The point is to make the college promote — as good things — everything which is actually terrible about most modern colleges. Then I remembered a fake college that I invented back when I was in college. I had created student recruitment brochures and various newsletters back then, so I decided to call my “new” college by the same name I’d invented years ago: Ochita College. As I searched my computer for any old material I might still have about Ochita from the past, I discovered an email I sent to someone in 2009 — outlining essentially the same idea which I came up with tonight. Since I didn’t remember writing that, it felt like magic. So my next film project just might be this one instead. If all goes well, you might soon see “Ochita College: Your Future Starts Here.” This should be fun.

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