The Official Publication of the Batten Brother's Debate Group

National Coercion July 14, 2009

By Jason Batten

You know what?  The government can do national health care. But can I go ahead and opt out?  That means I would be ineligible for it and it would also mean that I don’t have to pay for it.  I would rather have a choice where my charity money goes.  I think I should have the right to that choice. So should you.  While I’m at it, can I opt out of social security, corporate welfare, and pretty much everything else the government does?

Whether or not I believe in these things doesn’t matter.  The point is that not every individual does.  So those people shouldn’t be coerced into paying for them.  Let’s make up some fictional characters for an example I would like to use. We will call them John and Tom. John is a big time drug addict and has been arrested numerous times for his “offenses”.  Tom, on the other hand, is a small business owner who has never touched a drug.  Why should Tom, who has never touched a drug, be FORCED to pay taxes to try and stop John from doing drugs?  Even more applicable to this note is why Tom should be forced to pay for John’s healthcare when his health inevitably takes a turn for the worse.  Tom really “should” try to help someone like John, but should he be forced?  I really don’t believe so.  If you believe you should help that is awesome, and you are probably a wonderful person.  In that instance you should give all you want, but it should not be mandated.  It is a rather simplistic story that I just told.  However I think it gets my point across.  If you don’t get my point here it is:  National healthcare is not the end of free markets.  Some news commentators, whose names rhyme with Mannity, would lead you to believe otherwise.  The problem is when anything at all is forced.  Our taxation system, teamed up with the Federal Reserve, causes us more problems than it solves.  It helps us fund an empire that causes third world countries to hate us. Why should you or I be FORCED to pay for that?  I hope I’m being redundant enough. No government program is inherently evil. How we pay for it is inherently evil.  That is my point.

Maybe some of these programs are good. Can we at least cut some of them?

President Obama has recently said we are out of money.  If you or I were out of money we would have to spend less and save more to pay our debts.  Why doesn’t our country work like that?  We can’t afford all of these programs and people shouldn’t be forced to pay for them, whether it be through the income tax or the more elusive inflation tax.

I may be wrong. I really don’t think so though.