The current debate over government run healthcare gives me hope that not everyone wants to be under the thumb of Washington politicians. What doesn’t give me hope, though, is the amount of people in this country that would gladly give over their rights, the rights this country was founded upon, to Uncle Sam. Obama promised hope and change, not unlike Kennedy before him and in fact FDR.  Obama clearly wants to expand upon his predecessors.  As the saying goes, those who don’t know history are bound to repeat it.  Yet another generation gets enticed by daddy government coming in and fixing all your problems taking away another bastion of personal responsibility.

Today in America we take compulsory education to be a given.  Aside from some questioning of the NEA and anger over lackluster education, there’s little questioning of why the government is allowed to tell parents what, when and how their children are supposed to learn.  Many of us were shepherded through the public school system largely because our parents couldn’t afford, after the taxes imposed upon them, to send us anywhere else.  Even private schooling and homeschooling are largely mandated by the government.

For example, during my years in the public school system, I was required to spend x amount of days in class in order to pass.  The reason given to my parents was that part of the school experience is the social aspect.  The government, of course, knows the best way to socialize our children, not parents.  The government also knows the benchmarks that students need to reach each year in order to be well rounded citizens, right?

Not quite.  The public school system is about making money, plain and simple.  I recall on Wednesdays once a month students were gently prodded to show up in order to be counted.  Why is that? Each student that shows up on said Wednesday is a good chunk of money for the school system, even though the odds are good students don’t ever see the benefit of that money. Mandatory drug education programs teach students how to say no to drugs so that parents don’t have to be bothered with doing it themselves.  Yearly curricula are tailored to certain state tests, such as the MEAP in Michigan.  Does this help students get into college, like say preparing for the arbitrary ACT or SAT tests? No, but it does give school systems more money, and eventually that’ll trickle down to the students for more mandatory drug education, maybe even a brand new sex ed program.

What then does healthcare have to do with the public school system? Something as basic as education when taken over by the government becomes, in scientific terms, a colossal mess.  I’m sure no one will dispute that an educated populace, one that can read and write, among other things, is crucial (unless you can play basketball of course). A government that sets standards to make sure that young people meet these requirements is of course a necessary evil. Setting up a public school system that is at the whim of the now painfully politically correct system gives us the current subpar, uncompetitive school system we currently operate under-one in which public employees are allowed to unionize and receive year long pay for eight months of work. Now in regards to healthcare, it would make perfect sense if the government were to step in and say, enact price checks (yes price checks, I’m not under the ultimate free market delusion-the market will throw you under the bus just as quickly as government will) on doctors and hospitals.

Of course though, the AMA is in the bag of big government, just like the NEA, so to them it makes more sense to enact national healthcare.  Obama supporters decry, free healthcare for all! Except, it’s not free, massive tax increases will pay for it whether they, or I, want it or not.  If I choose not to have healthcare I will be penalized for it. Obama seems to think this is a great idea and even likens our bodies to cars.

We hear over and over again by Obama and his media that healthcare is a basic human right and that everyone deserves healthcare.  We’re led to believe that everyone is going to get quality healthcare if daddy government steps in.  The thing is, history shows us exactly what happens when the government steps in.  Within the public school system, you know the system set up so that everyone can get “quality education,” you have two different types of school systems: ones in rich-upper middle class neighborhoods and then the rest of them.  So once again, regardless of whether or not the government steps in, those with money still get better “human rights” than the rest of us.  I don’t think we need the government to step in and orchestrate that.

What happened to personal responsibility? Healthcare is just another move to a socialized nanny state.  The government knows what’s best for you.  You certainly can’t be left to your own devices; the government needs to make sure you don’t burn your hand on the stove. I think I’ll take my chances and say no thanks Obamalosi, I’ll take care of myself.