I read an interesting article today regarding the Myth of Health Insurance (http://tinyurl.com/c7glos if anyone cares to read the whole thing). The long and short of it is this - health "insurance" has little to do with health and nothing at all to do with insurance. Before you dismiss him as a zealot, ask yourself a couple of questions:
1) The last time I bought car insurance, did I immediately go out and wreck it so I could make a claim?
2) Have I filed a homeowners claim recently with (Allstate, State Farm, etc) because the faucet was leaky, the downspout came off, or the flooring was dirty?
The truth is, insurance, by definition, is transferring the risk off of yourself onto someone else in return for paying a premium; that way they assume responsibility should something go wrong. In other words, no one buys car insurance, homeowners insurance, life insurance, or any other kind of insurance with the itching irrational desire to go out and use it! Yet that's the idea to which many subscribe - I pay a premium, the insurance company should cover everything!
The question we must ask ourselves is, is health care an inalienable right or is it a commodity to be sold on the open market place? The author's position is that is it "immoral and impractical" for us to reject personal responsibility for our health and take a position of entitlement when it comes to health. After all, why should I pay the same premium as you when you've drank your liver under the table, smoked your lungs to hell itself and ate your way into stardom on The Biggest Loser?
The moral dilema is not whether or not we should provide health care to all, but rather at what point our eschewing of personal responsibility becomes negligent enough to punish.
I have to say, he's got a point.
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Monday, August 24, 2009
People Are Mad at the Government...(and why I'm really not)
The month of August has seen town hall after bloody town hall, talking head know-it-alls from every news outlet you can think of, and political pandering from your favorite local representative (btw, if the Spirit moves you, contact your local representative - http://www.house.gov/house/MemberWWW_by_State.shtml#fl).
On one hand it's been great to see the passion return to the heartland and not be dominated by the fringe outskirts of Los Angeles and New York, but in another sense it's disheartening to see such lack of self-control from so many of these good folk. And make no mistake, I think they're good folk, and when you tick off good folk for long enough, they'll fight back.
But really, the government isn't the problem. Don't misinterpret me, I didn't vote for our current president and wasn't too happy about how the former one spent his last 2 years in office. The real issue is not these institutions, but rather good ol' individual American apathy. We got so used to the glitz and glamour of the wealthiest nation on earth that we got arrogant; we felt entitled to such wealth, and assumed we'd continually increase it....increase it without acknowledging the One who enabled us to get here in the first place. Entitlement gave way to apathy, and before we knew it, our representatives - not all, to be sure, but many - hijacked power from the people who were too self-absorbed to care about whom they weren't electing. And now, it's an ever-loving mess.
So should people be mad at the government? Sure, knock your socks off. But I'm not - I'm mad at myself, because I fell into the same apathetic trap of everyone else.
Surely I'm not the only one who will admit it...
On one hand it's been great to see the passion return to the heartland and not be dominated by the fringe outskirts of Los Angeles and New York, but in another sense it's disheartening to see such lack of self-control from so many of these good folk. And make no mistake, I think they're good folk, and when you tick off good folk for long enough, they'll fight back.
But really, the government isn't the problem. Don't misinterpret me, I didn't vote for our current president and wasn't too happy about how the former one spent his last 2 years in office. The real issue is not these institutions, but rather good ol' individual American apathy. We got so used to the glitz and glamour of the wealthiest nation on earth that we got arrogant; we felt entitled to such wealth, and assumed we'd continually increase it....increase it without acknowledging the One who enabled us to get here in the first place. Entitlement gave way to apathy, and before we knew it, our representatives - not all, to be sure, but many - hijacked power from the people who were too self-absorbed to care about whom they weren't electing. And now, it's an ever-loving mess.
So should people be mad at the government? Sure, knock your socks off. But I'm not - I'm mad at myself, because I fell into the same apathetic trap of everyone else.
Surely I'm not the only one who will admit it...
Monday, July 20, 2009
Getting Started
I tried blogging a few months back, but quite frankly, I wasn't ready. Not that you have to have a PHD in blogging to actually write a blog, but I didn't have the right mindset, the right direction, the right focus.
Really, there are two types of people in the world:
1) those who jump in the water with both feet, and
2) those who tipsy-toe their way into everything they do.
Of course, there are the self-starters who "make their own luck" and all that narcissistic boasting, but that's just insecurity misplacing itself for confidence. I don't think one way is better than the other...in fact, both mindsets are needed; I suppose the goal is to decipher when to jump and when to wade.
I say all that to say this (one of my favorite "redirectors" of all time) - I think I'm finally beginning to understand how social networking, be it blogging, tweeting, facebooking or whatever, can leverage your position as a person, friend, business partner, etc. Work is the most boring thing in the world to me, but for most people it isn't...since I live on this planet and it's important to others, how I choose to engage others in the workplace qualifies as an essential. Engaging with social mediums such as Jeff Fordable, then, is essential - not because it's going to make me a lot of money or produce a lot of friends - but because it builds character necessary to endure that for which I'm not necessarily gifted.
I'm excited to see how this all plays out.
Really, there are two types of people in the world:
1) those who jump in the water with both feet, and
2) those who tipsy-toe their way into everything they do.
Of course, there are the self-starters who "make their own luck" and all that narcissistic boasting, but that's just insecurity misplacing itself for confidence. I don't think one way is better than the other...in fact, both mindsets are needed; I suppose the goal is to decipher when to jump and when to wade.
I say all that to say this (one of my favorite "redirectors" of all time) - I think I'm finally beginning to understand how social networking, be it blogging, tweeting, facebooking or whatever, can leverage your position as a person, friend, business partner, etc. Work is the most boring thing in the world to me, but for most people it isn't...since I live on this planet and it's important to others, how I choose to engage others in the workplace qualifies as an essential. Engaging with social mediums such as Jeff Fordable, then, is essential - not because it's going to make me a lot of money or produce a lot of friends - but because it builds character necessary to endure that for which I'm not necessarily gifted.
I'm excited to see how this all plays out.
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