Jeremy Phillips

First I must say that this blog entry is not in line with the tone of the rest of this site. I generally try to stay out of the political arena and most of my entries are either generally pleasant or technology related. This is mainly because my true political views are in far left field compared to almost everyone I know and I’m tired of arguing, most especially with strangers. However I feel the need to express my opinion and think this is an excellent forum to do so. If you don’t like this please feel free to stop reading.

Lately, I have been dedicating a large amount of my free time to thinking about the future of America. I’ve recently had a number of conversations on this subject, mostly centering around health care reform. Today, I finally dropped out of a discussion on health care reform when I was essentially told that I was only thinking about myself and that I was not respecting the opinions of others in the conversation. I’ll get around to what my opinion is in a little while, but first I want to state that even if I don’t agree with your opinion, I still respect it. I would ask that you do the same for mine. Mutual respect and the ability for two individuals to have a polite discussion about a subject on which they fundamentally disagree is one of the aspects that a productive society is built on, and I think the decline of it is just another sign of our society beginning to fall apart.

I found this quote last night while browsing through lagesse.org and it pretty much sets the tone for this post.

“You cannot legislate the poor into freedom by legislating the wealthy out of freedom.  What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving.  The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else.  When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that my dear friend, is about the end of any nation.  You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it.”

~~~~ Dr. Adrian Rogers, 1931

Today I read article in The Wall Street Journal, authored by John Mackey, CEO of Whole Foods. It’s title is “The Whole Foods Alternative to ObamaCare” and in addition to being very well written it also mirrors a good number of my ideas. What it doesn’t do is spell out what I believe the root of the health care problem is in this country: a lack of personal responsibility. Some who know me are probably, with good reason, rolling their eyes and asking what right I have to speak of personal responsibility. Well, see, I am well aware of the effect my choices have on my life and I am 100% willing to personally accept the consequences. I believe that is what personal responsibility boils down to – accepting the consequences of your own actions (or lack thereof).

When I look around at my generation and those younger than me I am continually startled by the attitude of entitlement. It’s incredibly prevalent in our society and while I am smart enough to know that I don’t know when it started or where it comes from I can give an example; When I was working at my last real job I interviewed a large number of people – I think at the high point I was doing 60+ phone interviews weekly. What did I find while talking to all these people? I found people who expect to make $50,000 a year right out of college, without any real world experience, while working 40 hours a week. I found people who want big houses, expensive cars and all the fun toys that life can possibly provide. I found people who had more questions about what the benefits of the position was than about what I was expecting them to do. What I didn’t find a great number of are people who are willing to actually work to obtain these things.

This leads me to my opinion; any form of national health care can do no good for this country. While I have most definitely not talked to everyone who is a proponent of national health care reform I’ve found similar ideas prevalent in everyone I have spoken to so far. They truly believe that their fellow citizens should pay for their health care. They say that health insurance is too expensive, they don’t make enough money to pay for it themselves, the insurance companies are greedy profiteering bastards and that I am most definitely wrong in everything I think. That’s OK, everyone is entitled to their opinion. However, I would really like to see some of these people go ask their neighbors for a contribution to their health care fund. That is what they are essentially a proponent of after all – asking their neighbors to pay for their health care.

This might be news to some people but most insurance companies are for-profit corporations. If you pay them $6,000 in premiums one year and it costs them $8,300 to cover your medical expenses, what do you think your premiums are going to be next year? They’re sure going to be more than $6,000.

If you truly want to be healthier then eat better, exercise more and stop doing all the things your parents told you not to do. Establish a Health Savings Account to cover the day to day health care expenses and sign up for some high deductible health insurance to cover major incidents. Don’t just stand by and let your neighbors pay. I don’t want to pay for my neighbor’s health care and I’m sure they don’t want to pay for mine. Yes, this approach requires you to actually put some thought into it and requires quite a bit of work to keep going but is definitely better than the alternative in my opinion.

If you have a better idea drop it in the comments, I’m all for a pleasant discussion.