Society Must Be Defended

I'd like to clear up an important point that has arisen in the wake of the health care debate.
The reason a "public option" for health insurance is anathema to some opponents of the plan is because they recognize a fundamental truth about our country: namely, that we are not a society. It is a common misconception that the founding fathers formed this republic for the benefit of the commonwealth. On the contrary, our nation is simply a venue for the socioeconomic competition between individuals. It is organized primarily for the purpose of protecting the material and ideological sanctity of private property. Of course, there are various other rules and obligations such as the prohibition against murder or other deliberate injury not sanctioned by the state, but the values of private property are sacrosanct.

In light of this reality, we can dispense with the notion that any citizen is entitled to goods, commodities, or services simply by the fact of citizenship. No government can provide and no individual is entitled to that which can be acquired otherwise by means of competition in the marketplace. To do so would be to interfere with the competition for resources between individuals that is the function and purpose of the nation. Further, such intervention typically occurs in favor of those individuals who have failed to become or remain competitive within the marketplace. This kind of policy making is antithetical to the concept of competitive fairness.

There are those who will argue that because 87% of the nation's wealth is possessed by only 25% of the population,¹ many Americans face a kind of competitive disadvantage from the outset of their existence. This argument, however, is immaterial. After all, there are no rules in sports designed to render the most gifted athlete less dominant in competition by taking away the natural advantages of speed and agility. Instead, the less gifted athlete must succeed at overcoming his disadvantages or else leave the competitive world behind.

It follows then, that health care is not a right. It, like all other commodities, is the spoil of competition for those who succeed in the marketplace. It is not an entitlement to be provided at the expense of the private property of the victors to those individuals who fail to succeed in the socioeconomic competition for which we are organized as a nation. Ultimately, we did not form this Union so that we could take care of each other; we formed it so that we could compete against each other.