As friends and foes now line up to criticize the new healthcare law, I wanted to point out the silver lining to this cloud: we get a clear view of a semi-contained micro-system, that (in its current form) will cause its own death and serve as an illustration of why socialism is eventually doomed in its every form.
History is replete with examples of socialism and Marxism ending in economic calamity. France, Germany, and Russia in generations past. Greece and Spain currently, and the Latin version runs live daily as we witness the spectacular disintegration of Venezuela. Unfortunately, this is not the road less traveled. But we humans just won’t learn our lessons the easy way. Each generation feels its superior point of view would enable it to create economic Nirvana (or simply will it to be), where differences between effort and capability, and sacrifice and prudence, claims no victims and we all sing “Kumbaya.” Well, mankind has dealt with these issues throughout the millennia, to this exact same conclusion. Margaret Thatcher was correct when she so eloquently said, “The problem with socialism is that sooner or later, you run out of other people’s money.” That squeaking you hear is Utopia slipping through our grasp once again.
As we will witness (eventually), economic schemes are only sustainable if they play to our own self interests. When our self-interest is to hijack the interest of others, failure will always follow. Surely some progressives will argue that hijacking other’s interests is how the rich got there to begin with. Really? For the ten examples you might be able to recall, I can name ten bankrupt systems with 300 million participants. Surely there are examples like the subprime mortgage mess. But wasn’t subprime mandated with government social plans of “affordability” to begin with? Even our most progressive friends will agree that they and their friends have all made their money legitimately dealing with others in an open system of negotiating, each for their own interest.
With twenty-eight percent of small businesses currently planning to drop insurance plans and pay the penalty of $2000 per employee instead, the plot will only thicken (and the penalties rise). A recent USA Today poll shows fifty-three percent of small business owners believe that the law will have a negative impact. If you think they are waiting for the Healthcare.gov website to get repaired before they make hiring plans for 2015, you are mistaken. And guess which age group is most at risk in this game…uh-huh.
