Saturday, August 29, 2009

Reduction in Personal Liberties

A friend in Italy referred me to a New York Times article on healthcare.

The New York Times is correct. This is true not only for Americans but also Western Europeans.
Consider the "salami effect" and the "reverse salami effect". The "salami effect" is cutting off very thin slices, so that the decrease in the whole is not noticeable on a short-term basis, but the salami is consumed over a long period. The "reverse salami effect" is the periodic additions of small items, so that the individual addition's are temporarily unnoticed over the short-term. However, the total change to the whole becomes apparent and significant over a long period.
The "reverse salami effect" on healthcare involves individual addition's of small benefits, such as free mammograms, reduced pharmaceutical costs, etc. The corresponding "salami effects" are longer waiting times, inability to choose doctors, etc., which the average person can adapt to. However, all of these are a collective reduction in personal liberties, which become very significant in total.
Reduction in personal liberties is only justifiable in cases where non-control would result in direct damage to another individual or group. An example would be the requirement for an individual to stop his motor vehicle at a red light.
Reduction in personal personal liberties by government is usually based on government's desire for increasing power. The classic analogy for the voting public is the selling of one's soul to the Devil for some short-term benefit.

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