Here's another of my radical ideas: I believe that education and healthcare should both be provided free of charge. In today's society, they are no longer something to be reserved for the privileged. They are a basic human right that should be available to all who want them.
"WHAT!?" they scream. "You commie !@#$%!"
Now that that's out of your system, let me explain. First of all, I do not advocate the elimination of private medical practitioners or educational institutions. They can do what they do and charge whatever the free market will bear. However, I beg the reader to calmly and objectively consider, what is the purpose of government? Most people immediately answer that government's first duty is to protect our borders. Okay, and after that? The consensus for priority two is usually to maintain an infrastructure that meets our needs (good roads, etc.). Priority three might include local objectives such as police and fire protection, decent schools, and public utilities.
I would like to include healthcare and education on the list. Why? Because, first of all, they are certainly as important as those things mentioned above, arguably more so. It should be obvious, regardless of ideology, that a healthy and well educated population is more desirable than a sickly, ignorant one.
Secondly, we waste millions (or billions or trillions) of dollars on things like "pork-barrel" spending, corporate welfare, and other such things, and that's just the "legitimate" stuff, without even including the corrupt payoffs to organizations like Halliburton and Enron, etc., so the cost is not really the issue (please feel free to prove me wrong about this, someone).
Thirdly, it would be so beneficial to our country to provide free healthcare and education. As an investment in the future, it would ultimately pay for itself. We could compete in the job market more effectively both at home and abroad. We could release the burden of employer-provided health insurance from businesses (as with my "radical pt. 1" entry, something that should appeal to the right as well as the left).
Finally, getting back to the purpose of government, one of the reasons it exists is to benefit our lives. Both the right and the left demonstrate their belief in that idea, no matter how loudly the right claims otherwise. Both sides use government as a means of legislating their values in order to shape society as they see fit. Why not do something that will benefit all of us?
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7 comments:
ShAnK! Some evil bastid' repuke hacked your site!!! They's a big ol' banner flashing nazi regalia for sale at the very top of your page!!! Say it ain't so joe, say it ain't so!!!!
ohhh. now it's flashing cordles phone stuff. Pretty weird tho'. When I first hit your site there was ads for The RNC, meet single repukes, cool conservative gear and
george bush t-shirts that aren't ugly. NO S--t! It scared the hell outta me! I even clicked on the RNC ad and it took me to their donation page. I am not gonna sleep well tonight at all!!! btw, did ya see the neeto Iraq war cost counter at the top of screams? And I assume you signed up for that google ad thing. I'm thinking of doing the same thing. Oh yeah did you hear that the FBI is spying on the quakers? what a hoot! Big time crime fighters protecting us from a bunch of pacifists.
I mean it man, it scared the piss outta me! At first I thought it was a joke until I tapped into the RNC page, jeesh! What a hell hole that was.
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