…the end of man is to know

So I’m pretty sure I’m blaspheming in the House of Free Markets, but I admit to being liberal, and even statist, on one issue: healthcare. I’m not Michael Moore-ing the issue and going to assault people with sob stories, manipulations, and ignorance of the facts on the ground. Instead, I think there are moral, and potentially economic, reasons to at least mandate healthcare.

I think the most pressing issue over medical assistance is morality. As an agnostic, I maintain that the only thing that we can know in this life is ourselves. There may or may not be a higher power, but it is not for me to legislate based on the possibility of an afterlife or upholding some deity’s desire. Honestly, even if there is a “heavenly being”, how could I possibly know what It wants me to do? So all I can go with is my life. Without some sort of objective moral standard to guide my actions, I do what I can to live a good life. With that said, I think the most important thing to uphold is the value of human life. I’m too damn smart to even approach the abortion side of the life issue, but I will address prolonging the lives of human beings who are out of the womb.

If the government’s obligation is to protect and preserve your life and liberty, how can it NOT offer you health care? The United States in 2008 has the largest economy in human history. It has a population that is better educated, safer, and has a higher standard of living than any other society. Ignoring the future and looking solely at hard data, this is the most impressive collection of human beings throughout the history of the species. For a society so advanced to simply let people die is oddly horrific.

My plan:

My general premise is that health care should be like auto insurance: you have to have it. It is also loosely based on Massachusetts’ health care plan under Mitt Romney. As in the current market, there are myriad types of health insurance programs which range in cost and quality of care. Everyone in the country receives a baseline government subsidy to buy a bare minimum health program. There would be minimal co-pays and additional costs to prevent people from going to the doctor for a hangnail, which would clog up lines.

For those with the means, they can use the subsidy and their own personal wealth to buy better quality health insurance. For the wealthy and insured, just think of this way: your taxes increase by $250 and you get a $200 credit to buy health insurance. You then buy your $1,000 health insurance that includes gold plated needles and state-of-the-art equipment.

At this point, the uninsured do not receive health care. Those who choose not to register for a health insurance plan (for reasons that would be totally beyond me, since you are getting free health care), they receive nothing. The emergency rooms would be less busy because of preventive medicine and would have no moral obligation to treat those without insurance.

If you want to see it from a different angle: my program is also analogous to food stamps. It allows the needy to make the purchase of essential items for basic survival. In order to best spread the program, I have elected to also give benefits to those who can afford to make payments. Though, I’m not unopposed to only allowing those make under $40,000 (or some other arbitrary number) to get government subsidies.

The counterarguments (and accompanying counter-counterarguments):

1. People are going to die anyway, the government need not concern itself with prolonging the inevitable

People will die. However, if we accept that the government has no obligation to prolong life, that it should not have a military or offer any services which improve lifespan and/or quality of life. If we accept as a general rule that prolonging the inevitable is unnecessary, we should commit mass suicide right now to get it over with.

2. This is going to cripple and discourage doctors and pharmaceutical workers

Not entirely. Doctors can still make oodles of money in the public and private sector. Considering how much money preventive care saves, I’m down the government paying a little extra to doctors…hell, let’s have merit pay for doctors who take the time to find illnesses and save long-term medical costs. Also, I don’t want the government covering plastic surgery or other optional procedures. If a doctor wants to make millions giving botox injections, let’s go for it.

Pharmaceutical companies would be largely unaffected by mandating health care. There need not be a wholesale reform of patent laws, so drugs can still cost $20/pill to promote further Research & Development. Moreover, putting more Americans on healthcare will make drug use more affordable, increasing the supply of customers to drug companies.

3. This is an affront on my personal liberties! I should buy as much healthcare as I want!

That’s fine. If we make health care like auto insurance, then you can buy as high or low quality health care as you want. Buy a policy that offers top of the line services which covers all doctors and provides the most up-to-date procedures. I am not arguing that all Americans should have equal health care, just that all Americans should have some form of it.

4. It is grossly inefficient!

Not really. Considering the incredibly high costs of Emergency Room visits by the uninsured, preventive medicine is much cheaper. Offering a tax credit/stipend to the poor to buy low-level health care is more cost-efficient than Hillary or Obama’s plans to put all Americans on government-run programs. My plan still has privatized medicine.

5. It’s the free-market! Any Econ course worth its salt teaches you that the free-market is the most efficient producer of goods and services

Yes, but any Econ course also acknowledges externalities. In the case of the externality of the economic (in terms of work productivity) benefit of health care for poor folk, I’m willing to let the government use my (and your) tax dollars.

Moreover, preventive medicine is an investment that the poor can’t make.

Given the nature of this particular blog environment, I suspect my views are unpopular. I hope to spark intelligent discourse. If you disagree, please drop a comment.

Over its now 232 year lifetime, the United States has made grievous errors. Social equality has been a longtime coming for ethnic minorities, women, and children. We have failed millions of Americans and non-Americans. Yet, we have made it through. Somehow, someway, we still stand as one of the paragons of social welfare and societal improvement. Our economy remains the largest the world, twice the size of our nearest competitor. Despite our foreign policy blunders and the rise of anti-Americanism, we still have more influence than any other country on the planet.

Millions of people have risked life and limb to illegally sneak into this country. Millions more throughout history have gone through the tedious process of legal entry. All of us have wanted our part of the American Dream. No matter how mythical or idealistic, there remains a genuine belief that hard work will be rewarded. With greater social mobility than in most industrialized states, college dropouts and those from humble backgrounds have risen to the top of the food chain. Anyone with big dreams can be the next great American story.

With all of this optimism and hope, why is it that 41% believe that America is not a place with liberty and justice for all? Does anyone who talks their way out of a traffic ticket contribute to the degradation of the rule of law? Is every crime that goes unsolved proof-positive that we lack basic American characteristics? I’d like to think otherwise.

Don’t hate on OJ. He’s just living the American Dream!

I fear that we have reached a point in our society that the patriotic thing to do is to criticize the government. While I am all about healthy skepticism (and putting OJ behind bars), we may have gone over the edge. Frivolous lawsuits and demands for special treatment do not represent the American way.

I’m sorry if the incapable are incapable and if the unqualified are unqualified, but I don’t remember liberty and justice mandating forced equality. I agree that any obstacles to freedom of opportunity must be removed. All we can, and should, do in this society is give everyone an equal chance. Those who waste their chance do not deserve more opportunities and preferential treatment. Income distribution is not unnatural. Stratification is, to a certain extent, inevitable.

The quixotic quest for some sort of utopia where everyone has a job and has equal salary isn’t going anywhere. “Great” societies like Maoist China and Stalinist USSR have “tried” and failed. The great myth of the political left is a perversion of the Founding Fathers’ dreams and goals. The left offers a view that the framers did not support social mobility.

When polled, 10% of Americans would rather live somewhere else. To the estimated 30 million of us who do not want to be part of the American Dream, I respectfully ask that you leave. There are millions more who would love to take your place.

In the third edition of “No ‘Effin Way”, one would expect me to find a ridiculous article that spurs some sort of outrage. Today, I have found something that has caused more anger and rage than even I thought possible. For those to lazy to click over, Nickelback has been nominated for multiple Grammys and won 3 Billboard Music Awards over the past few years. This embarrassment of a band actually has a following of fans. As we approach Independence Day, I call on the millions of Nickelback fans to break the shackles and declare themselves free of bad music.

In mainstream music, too much credit (or blame) usually goes to the frontman. In Nickelback’s case, this is far from the truth. Not nearly enough blame goes to Chad Kroeger. Just look at this guy. Could he be trying any harder to look cool? The longish hair. The t-shirt. The jeans with enough holes to make it look like he isn’t trying, but not enough to make him look unclean. The shout out to his adoring masses. It’s all there.

Yet, if I only didn’t like Chad Kroeger as a person, then this blog post would be ad hominem after ad hominem. But it’s the music that is really insufferable. Their musical “style” is a joke. They launch songs like Animals (the song starts with “I’m driving like I’m Black”) so they can build up some cred as a hard rock, angry band. Then they’ll switch over to If Everyone Cared (”if everyone shared and swallowed their pride, we’d see the day when nobody died”) which sounds like the worst attempt at channeling John Lennon and Neil Young since John Mayer.

This clip is from a Nickelback concert at a Portuguese music festival. I’m not sure which is better: the fact that after getting hit in the head with rocks and a water bottle, Kroeger and the drummer both flip off the “fans” or the fact that Kroeger is somehow convinced that his band exemplifies “real rock music”. If I wanted real rock music, then I would go home and put in a Rolling Stones or AC/DC album, Chad. I sure as hell wouldn’t be listening to you.

And now we come to the most horrific, un-American part of Nickelback: they copy themselves. It’s true. Most disingenious musicians are caught lip-syncing or simply copy another band’s work. Not singing or singing someone else’s music is an American trend. Kroeger, in his Canadian brilliance, thought it would be sweet if he just copied his own music. For proof, I turn to the all-American, NPR.

Some of the highlights:at the 1:45 mark, the piece plays two of Nickelback’s most famous songs “How You Remind Me” and “Someday”. The two songs have identical structures, and even vocal patterns are similar. At the 5:50 point “Do This Anymore” and “How You Remind Me” also mix. 6:15 combines “How You Remind Me” with fellow Canadian Avril Lavigne’s “My Happy Ending”. Nickelback’s bassist also compares his band to AC/DC at 3:30.

The best line ever: At 3:15, the reporter cites the uproar on message boards over Nickelback’s alleged plaigarism. “Responses on the internet range from ‘This guy’s a genius. Nickelback sucks!’ to ‘Nickelback rules, YOU suck!’”

So there you have it. Chad Kroeger is a joke. The bassist thinks his band has the same “hit-like quality” that AC/DC has. The drummer flips off fans who actually do listen to real rock music. The band rips off its own songs to make new singles. And the fans’ intellectual capacities do not extend beyond “I am rubber, you are glue”.

My name is PragmaticallyPolitical, and I am a former Nickelback fan. I have been clean for over 2 years.

I wish you all a safe, happy, and Nickelback-less July 4th.

Don’t forget: be pragmatic, be political. And Nickelback sucks.

While Americans were busy not paying attention, most of the free world (and some of the less-than-free world) had its eyes trained on Euro Cup 2008. In yesterday’s final, the Spaniards defeated the vaunted German side, 1-0. The game was highly entertaining, even to this admitted nationalist who focuses on American sports. After Spain’s victory, there were massive impromptu celebrations throughout Barcelona, Madrid, and a host of urban areas.

So many Europeans fully invest themselves, and their sense of national dignity, in how well their soccer team performs. Soccer-mania extends beyond Europe, as the African nation of Senegal virtually shut down after a stunning upset in 2002 over soccer goliath, and colonial master, France. Political leaders attend key matches, legitimizing the games as more than just sport. Foreign policy blunders, economic woes, and political scandals are temporarily forgiven in exchange for a victory.

On this side of the Atlantic, most people don’t even know how America performs in international competition. There is minimal enthusiasm, or news coverage, over whether or not America’s men’s basketball team can reclaim Olympic Gold in Beijing. In fact, I’m curious to know how many of my countrymen even know when (or if!) the Olympics will begin.

Despite not taking a single Sociology course, I have a few hunches as to why America seems wholly indifferent to our ability to move an object in a certain direction using certain body parts/accessories:

1. Dude, we’re awesome:

There’s a golden rule of social groups: those at the top don’t like change. Likewise, the United States should avoid national prestige being left up to athletic feats. Instead, let’s stick to what we’re good at: cultural diffusion, economic size, and the ability to destroy the planet in 6.4 seconds. Once we invest ourselves and risk our title as greatest, best country god has ever given man on the face of the Earth we actually might lose it. So pretending that international athletic events are completely irrelevant prevents us from losing anything.

2. 4, 6,8: USA does not preach hate:

Can anyone tell me who the United States’ greatest rival is? The Soviet Union doesn’t exist anymore. The Japanese are now a key trading partner. The Germans are a strong ally. The British haven’t fought with us (tea v. coffee, notwithstanding) since the War of 1812. The Mexicans and Canadians are humorously non-threatening. There simply is no country to root against. Our “rivals” have always been countries which we have tried to destroy. Our geographic and social isolation also means that we don’t have friendly rivalries. The United States is in a category by itself. Without any peers, Americans traditionally don’t favor one country over another.

3. Football, not futbol!

For the past century, America has been a baseball-football-basketball country. NASCAR, golf, tennis, and hockey are on the periphery. Cricket and soccer (for those over the age of ten) are unheard of. The problem is that most countries are die-hard soccer fans and South Asia looooooves its cricket. Baseball and basketball are globalizing very slowly, but are still very much American. If the world cared about its football teams, then maybe Americans can rally behind NFL stars in international tournaments. In the interim, there are no international football competitions. Our national sports are simply ignored by the rest of the globe.

It is quite odd, and disappointing, that in a country which has accomplished so much thanks to competition and rivalry, the public routinely forgoes opportunities to improve nationalism and patriotism.

This summer, prove me wrong. Paint your entire body red, white, and blue. Wrap yourself in the American flag. Actually commit the national anthem to memory. You can only gain bragging rights if you are willing to lose them.

And if the USA doesn’t win, just tell your non-American enemies that your country can destroy theirs before they can say “gold medal”.