By Mark Steyn
A society of children cannot survive.
Willie Whitelaw a genial old buffer who served as Margaret Thatchers deputy for many years once accused the Labour party of going around Britain stirring up apathy. Big government depends in large part on going around the country stirring up apathy creating the sense that problems are so big so complex so intractable that even attempting to think about them for yourself gives you such a splitting headache its easier to shrug and accept as given the proposition that only government can deal with them.
Viscount Whitelaws apparent paradox is in fact a shrewd political insight and all the sharper for being accidental.
Take health care. Have you read any of these health-care plans? Of course not. Theyre huge and turgid and unreadable. Unless youre a health-care lobbyist a health-care think-tanker a health-care correspondent or some other fellow whos paid directly or indirectly to plough through this stuff why bother? None of the senators whose names are on the bills have read em; why should you?
And you can understand why they drag on a bit. If you attempt to devise a health-care plan" for 300 million people its bound to get a bit complicated. But a health-care plan for you Joe Schmoe of 27 Elm Street didnt used to be that complicated did it? Lets say you carelessly drop
Ted Kennedys health-care plan on your foot and it breaks your toe.
In the old days youd go to your doctor (or indeed believe it or not have him come to you) hed patch you up and youd write him a check. Thats the way it was in most of the developed world within living memory.
Now under the guise of insurance" various third parties intercede between the doctor and your checkbook and to this the government proposes adding a massive federal bureaucracy in the interests of controlling costs." The
British National Health Service is the biggest employer not just in the United Kingdom but in the whole of Europe.
Care to estimate the size and budget of a U.S. health bureaucracy?
Read the rest of this article HERE
*This article is from www.NationalReview.com
Willie Whitelaw a genial old buffer who served as Margaret Thatchers deputy for many years once accused the Labour party of going around Britain stirring up apathy. Big government depends in large part on going around the country stirring up apathy creating the sense that problems are so big so complex so intractable that even attempting to think about them for yourself gives you such a splitting headache its easier to shrug and accept as given the proposition that only government can deal with them.
Viscount Whitelaws apparent paradox is in fact a shrewd political insight and all the sharper for being accidental.
Take health care. Have you read any of these health-care plans? Of course not. Theyre huge and turgid and unreadable. Unless youre a health-care lobbyist a health-care think-tanker a health-care correspondent or some other fellow whos paid directly or indirectly to plough through this stuff why bother? None of the senators whose names are on the bills have read em; why should you?
And you can understand why they drag on a bit. If you attempt to devise a health-care plan" for 300 million people its bound to get a bit complicated. But a health-care plan for you Joe Schmoe of 27 Elm Street didnt used to be that complicated did it? Lets say you carelessly drop Ted Kennedys health-care plan on your foot and it breaks your toe.
In the old days youd go to your doctor (or indeed believe it or not have him come to you) hed patch you up and youd write him a check. Thats the way it was in most of the developed world within living memory.
Now under the guise of insurance" various third parties intercede between the doctor and your checkbook and to this the government proposes adding a massive federal bureaucracy in the interests of controlling costs." The British National Health Service is the biggest employer not just in the United Kingdom but in the whole of Europe.
Care to estimate the size and budget of a U.S. health bureaucracy?
Read the rest of this article HERE
*This article is from www.NationalReview.com
