I’ve been thinking recently about the trade offs between liberty and security. I would love to know that everyone in our country could get the health care they need. I sincerely would want that, and a single payer government system used to seem like a good way to get there. But the more I think about it and the trade offs involved, the more concerned I am that the sacrifice of liberty and freedom required of such a system is way too expensive. We are already seeing the government talk of the “cost” of certain conditions. Why does this cost the government anything? It’s because the government already provides a certain amount of health care to the general public at the public expense. Now imagine if all health care payments went through the government. Suddenly, every health care decision you make is everyone else’s business because they’re having to pay for it with their taxes. If you’re overweight, then you are a burden on society because they’ll have to pay for your diabetes medication one day. “How many children are you going to have?” some will ask. “Don’t you know how expensive it is for us to deliver that child and provide it health care and education?” Contraceptives and abortion are such a cheaper alternative to bringing children into the world. What about those last few years of someone’s life when they are consumed by cancer or another terminal illness? Will our society decide that it costs too much to keep such people alive? Euthanasia is certainly a cheaper alternative to chemo therapy and extensive hospital visits.
Last Sunday, Nancy Pelosi, the Speaker of the US House of Representatives, defended putting hundreds of millions of dollars of contraceptive spending into the stimulus bill. When asked to defend it, she explained that it helped states to cut costs. And this from a mother of 5!
This is not the time for more government. This is the time for more liberty. The founders of this land took care of each other, but not through government taxes which can be collected at gun point. They freely gave of what they had and delivered it through churches, ladies aid associations, neighbors, and other means. If we embark more fully on the path of government control, of ceding our rights and liberties over to politicians in exchange for promises of more security, we’ll eventually find out that we have neither liberty nor security. We’ll be slaves. All of our earnings will go to the government and we’ll only be able to act within the bounds they set for us.
Now is the time to defend liberty. Now is the time to let your representatives know that you want less government interference and not more. Now is the time to tell them to stop expanding government on the backs of our children and grandchildren.
LDS, Mormon, lds, Mormon
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Benjamin Franklin is quoted as saying:
“They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.” He wrote something similar in Poor Richard’s Almanack (1738): “Sell not virtue to purchase wealth, nor Liberty to purchase power.”
There is always risk in liberty, but as in all things where there is risk, there is the potential for great blessings and benefits.
When our safety is assured through the loss of our liberty, we lose the joy of being responsible for our own destiny, we lose hope in a better future, we lose the power to change the world. That which we lose to gain a small amount of safety will always be greater than the safety.
I really like your post. Does it copyright protected?
Thanks Kelly. Feel free to quote me. I would just ask that you recognize that I wrote it. My name is Matt Dayley.