Oh awesome, Dallas. Good luck. You should tell them you run intellectualwhores.com; I'd bet they all know and love it. But quickly, right now go and change the main page so that it heavily references Google, put on a google search, and compare yahoo/msn searching to outlaw bikers.
But for the corporations: I don't think that in the US it has been decided, yet, that healthcare is a right. Gov't policy says that it is a privilege, unlike, say, education, which is a right. BUT! It is a privilege that should be relatively cheap and easy to achieve, like a TV or a PC. It shouldn't take much extra to get healthcare, and it should take hardly anything to keep it once you have it (even if you lose your job for a while). A safety net is definitely of the utmost importance. Again, the decline in healthcare coverage has been attributed to the rising cost of healthcare, but that really just means the inclusion of addition semi-necessary drugs in healthcare policies.
Also, perhaps we take the "fending of foreign invaders" a little to zealously? I'm with you, though--my bag proudly displays a pin that says "money for education and healthcare not war" which I had custom made a while back.
That is a good question! By necessitating one but not the other, the government has said that everyone has the right to a good education but must work for the privilege of healthcare.
Clearly one difference is developmental stage. When one is young, one cannot provide education for onesself, nor can one make the determination of whether or not one needs education.
Also, think of the difference between elementary/secondary education and higher education. The government says that higher education is NOT a right--you need to pay your own way and work hard to achieve it. Maybe the difference is the level of the education, but maybe the difference has more with the realities of the world--in order to achieve such you have to prove your merit.
I mean, I can't really answer why education is a right and healthcare is not, mostly because I don't believe ANYTHING is a right. There are no more fundamental rights now than there were millions of years ago when we were busy getting slaughtered by dinosaurs ;)
I look at it from the perspective of societal benefit. There will ALWAYS be people who slip through the crack; those who refuse to become educated, etc. Having an educated population is smart because it brings prosperity, and also because it reduces the number of loose-cannon liabilities out there (compare the number of 3rd world and 1st world murderers and terrorists). But putting everyone through a masters program doesn't make sense--you end up with an unproductive population.
Healthcare is similar--you want to make sure people can contribute to society and that you don't get too many "John Q" situations. But at the same time, if you gave everyone constant treatment for whatever they wanted, you'd be making a USSR-scale mistake in terms of incentives, which is stupid. So the compromise is in the middle somewhere, and healthcare is only arguably a right.
Along previous lines, I think health insurance should be guaranteed and paid for by the gov't in a gigantic pool for everyone until they're 18.
that's how I feel, that if you really want to reward people based on merit everyone should start out somewhat on the same footing, which means education and healthcare till 16 or so (I personally thought the last 2 years of high school wasn't important unless you were planning on college already).
The next problem is what consists of basic health care? I studied this a bit in my Current Issues in Bioethics class, and with just 15 people in the room there was no consensus, so I wonder how we can get a bunch of senators and representatives, not to mention the rest of the people of this country. There is so much that needs to go into a basic health care plan, and that's just physical health and doesn't even cover mental health.
eh I don't know how to answer my own questions, so I probably shouldn't ask them of other people.
Ha, that's extremely lawyerly of you. Sure, in a tough negotiation situation, never ask a question unless you know the answer. But this is philosophy (albeit political philosophy); if you don't ask the question, it'll never get answered!
But politics is always a compromise. Hopefully we're all educated enough in the first place to arrive upon a good one.
But for the corporations: I don't think that in the US it has been decided, yet, that healthcare is a right. Gov't policy says that it is a privilege, unlike, say, education, which is a right. BUT! It is a privilege that should be relatively cheap and easy to achieve, like a TV or a PC. It shouldn't take much extra to get healthcare, and it should take hardly anything to keep it once you have it (even if you lose your job for a while). A safety net is definitely of the utmost importance. Again, the decline in healthcare coverage has been attributed to the rising cost of healthcare, but that really just means the inclusion of addition semi-necessary drugs in healthcare policies.
Also, perhaps we take the "fending of foreign invaders" a little to zealously? I'm with you, though--my bag proudly displays a pin that says "money for education and healthcare not war" which I had custom made a while back.
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Clearly one difference is developmental stage. When one is young, one cannot provide education for onesself, nor can one make the determination of whether or not one needs education.
Also, think of the difference between elementary/secondary education and higher education. The government says that higher education is NOT a right--you need to pay your own way and work hard to achieve it. Maybe the difference is the level of the education, but maybe the difference has more with the realities of the world--in order to achieve such you have to prove your merit.
I mean, I can't really answer why education is a right and healthcare is not, mostly because I don't believe ANYTHING is a right. There are no more fundamental rights now than there were millions of years ago when we were busy getting slaughtered by dinosaurs ;)
I look at it from the perspective of societal benefit. There will ALWAYS be people who slip through the crack; those who refuse to become educated, etc. Having an educated population is smart because it brings prosperity, and also because it reduces the number of loose-cannon liabilities out there (compare the number of 3rd world and 1st world murderers and terrorists). But putting everyone through a masters program doesn't make sense--you end up with an unproductive population.
Healthcare is similar--you want to make sure people can contribute to society and that you don't get too many "John Q" situations. But at the same time, if you gave everyone constant treatment for whatever they wanted, you'd be making a USSR-scale mistake in terms of incentives, which is stupid. So the compromise is in the middle somewhere, and healthcare is only arguably a right.
Along previous lines, I think health insurance should be guaranteed and paid for by the gov't in a gigantic pool for everyone until they're 18.
Reply
The next problem is what consists of basic health care? I studied this a bit in my Current Issues in Bioethics class, and with just 15 people in the room there was no consensus, so I wonder how we can get a bunch of senators and representatives, not to mention the rest of the people of this country. There is so much that needs to go into a basic health care plan, and that's just physical health and doesn't even cover mental health.
eh I don't know how to answer my own questions, so I probably shouldn't ask them of other people.
Reply
But politics is always a compromise. Hopefully we're all educated enough in the first place to arrive upon a good one.
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