January 09, 2006

Do you like to get a real bargain? Does the word "free" in an ad get your attention? How about discovering that the place you bought last year is now worth thousands more? Does your conscience bother you over the bargain or do you figure you made a voluntary trade with a willing seller? Most people are content if they believe they got as much as possible for their money, or gave "value for value" some way in their business and employment deals. This is a very good thing. It's what keeps us trading and working.

Most of us like to think that the need for liberty and autonomy is at the base of human nature, but though it is a powerful part of life, it isn't the strongest part by any means. The history of the world is ample proof if we look at it honestly. The centuries of tyranny and slavery all over the world indicate that some people are actually willing to live as literal slaves. Maybe they think it is the only way they can survive. It also takes much less effort to be a slave than to live free, completely responsible for yourself and your family. Why else would so many people live that way?

A most basic facet of human nature is the desire to get what they want and need for the least expenditure of time and effort; part of the survival instinct. No human being is totally exempt, and that's a good thing because it is one of the reasons the free market works. There are many descriptions of this phenomenon and you might be interested in reading about it in some of the many articles at Ludwig von Mises.

Advertising is built almost exclusively on this basic human drive, as is every kind of fraud and theft, including government. Advertising can be either good or bad, of course, but these last aren't healthy manifestations. The natural drive to get the best deal morphs into the desire to get something for nothing. Ultimately, it drives a person to diminish or destroy integrity and many of the other parts of human nature that cause us to form friendships, families and communities for mutual help and protection.

I've been watching a little television the last few weeks as I waited for my broken leg to mend. Boredom will drive even me to amazing things sometimes, but it has been educational as well as sickening. I hadn't watched TV for about 5 years before, and it may be a lot longer before I look at it again.

The most striking thing I've seen is the constant bombardment of prescription drug (and other health related) advertising and the propaganda pieces for the various government programs like the new Medicare drug welfare plans. The first tries to convince people to take pills they most likely don't need - at real risk to their health - and the second shows them how they can get someone else to pay for it.

One ad, for example, tells people they should take a specific drug if they use artificial tears in their eyes more than a few times a day. They don't say a word about the most obvious CAUSE of those dry eyes, of course. Many people, especially the elderly, are chronically dehydrated because they don't drink enough water. The obvious first step toward preventing dry eyes (and a LOT of other health problems) is to drink more water consistently. But that advice wouldn't sell the pills, now would it?

No, it is not the job of the drug company to advise people to drink more water. It would be nice, but the real responsibility rests on the shoulders of the people who need the water. It would be nice if doctors would tell their patients how important proper hydration really is, but you can bet that not one in a hundred will do anything but whip out the prescription pad.

Oh yes! The other major factor in chronic dehydration of the elderly (and lots of other people) is the fact that they take an astounding number of pills, many of which contribute to dehydration. The classic sign is a "dry mouth," especially at night. So the first step a good doctor should take is to eliminate all but the most life sustaining medications, and question the patient each visit to discover such symptoms. The dangers of these drugs are well known to the doctors, but they don't seem to spend much time looking for the cause of problems if there is a pill available, supposedly to treat it.

The Medicare drug program takes this folly to even greater depths of depravity. One "ad" showed an elderly lady who said, "I figure that the less I spend on 'medical stuff,' the more I can spend on my grandchildren." It seems impossible that someone like that wouldn't see clearly that her grandchildren are going to be paying for those drugs, in spades! But I've talked to a great many seniors who simply close their eyes to this obvious truth and have convinced themselves that "the rich," etc. are going to pay for it instead - if they are willing to think about it at all.

Then there are the ads for the electric "scooters" and chairs, diabetic supplies and other medical things that are provided to Medicare patients at little or no cost. Of course that sounds like a great deal to those who get them, but as with the drug plan, few of them are interested much in who really winds up paying for it. It isn't a matter of who "needs" these things or their ability to pay for it themselves. It's all being paid for with stolen goods and that's the whole problem.

Why won't most people even consider how evil all this is? Human nature, and the desire to get something for nothing has a lot to do with it. It's a lot of work to take personal responsibility for life and health. It is easier to take a pill than make a lifestyle change, even one as simple as drinking a few glasses of water each day. It is easier to think that "someone else" will pay for your pills and supplies, and not face the fact that this is theft - even if those pills are really necessary. The recipients of these programs don't have a problem with buying a new car or sending the kids to Disneyland, maybe because nobody else is being robbed to pay for it... yet anyway.

So, my little theory plays out in the drug stores, doctor's offices and everywhere else. "Universal health care" and all the other socialist schemes work out the same way. The "free lunch" is indeed free to those who eat without paying, but somebody ultimately has to pay for the food. There are only three ways to pay for things: personal responsibility (hard work, savings, trade), voluntary gift or theft.

Do you want the stolen goods called government "services?" Do you voluntarily pay for all the things our government does? Or do you understand that they are paid for by outright theft? Does anything government does justify theft, even if they could be convinced to stop the incredible abuse and injustice that goes along with it? Think about that.

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