reply to post by LDragonFire
If health care is a right then social security must be a right as well, otherwise some elderly would starve while others did not. (Odd how, not so
long ago, the debate to privatize social security was in full swing ... ) Moreover, if it is a right then it is an peculiar right because the
legislation penalizes/taxes (and I think lack of consensus on this point only accentuates its fallacies) an individual for not paying premiums (is it
anything
but insurance, much like social security?) for a projected visit to the hospital that the same individual may not seek. Add to that
the argument that health care provides for a healthy & productive society (heck, Kathleen Sebelius consecrated universal heathcare a national security
interest), & we can immediately recognize that universal healthcare can provide not only healthy & productive citizens, but healthy & unproductive
citizens as well. So if the argument is to live up to its standard (i.e. that a healthy society is a productive society), then it stands to reason
the productivity of citizens will have to be monitored, otherwise we cannot be certain universal heath care provides for both a healthy & productive
society. Call that phase II of the Affordable Heathcare Act.
I tend to equate privelege with property rights--as a subset of rights. Granted, some material cannot be owned. For instance it makes no sense for
me to lay claim to air, demanding that all people pay me for breathing air.
But I don't think I will be misunderstood when I write that my
property is both my right & my privelege, or that I confer privelege to someone else when I allow them to use my property. The same could be said of
a service as well, when someone uses special knowledge or capability to provide a service for another. Under these circumstances two parties accede
to a voluntarity transaction, and I think privelege is a subset of voluntary transactions.
My final thought: Healthcare is, primarily, an economically motivated service. Voluntary transactions are--or should be--a right. Non voluntary
transactions are, generally, not a right. The exception being when the state mandates specific action at the penalty (call it the
final
recourse) of violence.
edit on 4-7-2012 by Kovenov because: inserted "only"
edit on 4-7-2012 by Kovenov because: corrected
syntax
edit on 4-7-2012 by Kovenov because: (no reason given)