Entitled to be sick, fat and self-destructive ~ By Star Parker

By Star Parker © 2009 Want to know what troubles our American health care system? Consider the thoughts of psychiatrist and Nazi death camp survivor Viktor Frankl. After spending time in our country as a visiting professor, he saw the looming dangers of freedom without responsibility. He observed, "Freedom is in danger of degenerating into mere arbitrariness unless it is lived in terms of responsibleness. That is why I recommend that the Statue of Liberty on the East Coast be supplemented by a Statue of Responsibility on the West Coast." We as Americans accept that health care is an individual right, even if someone else is paying for it. The truth that every personal right must have an accompanying personal responsibility is now lost in our self-absorbed materialistic culture. We have only rights, entitlements if you will. Few have any idea what the costs are of the health care they receive. Many get it tax-subsidized through their employer, many get it through Medicare in a now bankrupt ponzi scheme in which those working pay taxes to pay for care of those retired, and more than 60 million Americans do not pay at all through Medicaid and SCHIP programs. Hundreds of millions receive health care, the costs of which have little or nothing to do with their own personal realities, and then we wonder why those costs are out of control. Now Ted Kennedy has introduced his solution to all of this, which also captures the thinking of our president. Set up a new government health care plan, subsidized by taxes, and call this "choice" because you are not forced to take it (although you are forced to pay taxes for it). As Senator Kennedy announces more free health care – meaning one group of Americans will get what another group of Americans will pay for – the disconnect between who gets health care services and who pays for them will grow even greater. [Keep reading]

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