As I was casually surfing various sites for health care reform information this past Thanksgiving Day, I stumbled across a story titled The Carnival of Special Interests. Reading through it, I was struck by how well this fable exposed the failure of our elected officials along with the entrenched buaercracy, to bring about any meaningful and beneficial changes to health care in America.

At the end of the story I discovered that it was but one chapter in a book written by Ken Schoolland. I followed a link to this site, which features his book, The Adventures of Jonathan Gullible – A Free Market Odyssey. The book was written a number of years ago, but because the evolution of our government and its well entrenched bureaucracies moves at a glacial pace, it is still as relevant today as when it was published. 

In the best tradition of the satirical work of Jonathan Swift we see the world through the eyes of Jonathan Gullible, a lad shipwrecked on a strange island. As he wonders around the island he encounters strange people living under bazaar laws that seem a little too familiar. Like Gulliver’s Travels the fictional absurd is a true but uncomfortable reflection of the way we treat each other and ourselves. 

Doc and I were so impressed with the epilog titled the Philosophy of Liberty Guiding Principals that we requested permission to reprint it on our site. A few years ago, this short document that expresses a perfectly rational system of beliefs was animated. It is very well done and quite thought provoking. We included a link on a page called Your Life Is Your Own under the Enhanced Living tab on our site.

I am not a huge fan of using this space for politicking and have become leery of people from both parties that want to make my life easier. Though this document is held in reverence by many from the Libertarian Party, I would describe it as a summary of common sense. The values expressed in the Philosophy of Liberty Guiding Principals were pretty much held by everyone a hundred years ago. But now, many have forgotten just what they are. Taking responsibility for one’s own actions is not vogue in today’s culture. It is much easier to let others do your thinking for you. This has the dual benefit of providing someone to blame when things don’t go as you wanted, and allows extra time to watch more television and be entertained instead of doing all that boring thinking for yourself. 

Everyday we stand by and allow our government to take away more of our rights. We allow them to take away more and more of our money (property) in the form of taxes. The latest remedy to fix our broken health care delivery system seems to be founded on the fact that Americans can not be trusted to save money in a medical savings account to pay for their own health care. The recommended fix is too force people to purchase government managed care policies because they are “more efficient”. So as our poorest citizens and the lower middleclass are forced into this government run insurance programs, the cost of these entitlements will be born by all of us.

If you are a working stiff, you probably can’t afford to get sick anyway. And your taxes will go up to pay for everyone else’s managed care. Well not everyone’s health care. The upper class won’t wait years for medical procedures nor live with the requirements for rationing. The wealthiest citizens will just jet off to India for a new pancreas or for that quadruple bypass surgery. Of course nobody wants to come out and be seen as unfeeling even though the plan contemplates forcing the wealthy (I think that now translates into everyone whose gross income is over $80K a year, now) to pay higher taxes no wait it might be premiums. But taxing only the top wage earners can’t possible pay for all the bypass surgeries needed by the 46 – 50 million uninsured in this country.

We have debated the concept of Managed Care vs. Insurance vs. Medical Savings Accounts extensively on this site. But we have not spoken a great deal about personal accountability. That is why Mr. Schooland’s views are welcome as he seeks to inspire us to take responsibilities for our own decisions and actions. Even if we were able to fund universal health care in this country from some huge version of an Alaska Oil slush fund and not raise taxes the question remains, “Should we?”

I fear that we are teaching our children that they are entitled to free healthcare under the new plan before congress. Instead of providing for one’s self through we continue replacing personal responsibilities with entitlements. We are saying that the government will make sure that you never go hungry because you are entitled to food stamps. We are saying that the government will see that you have a roof over your head because you are entitled to free or low income housing.

Persona Accountability is more than a turn of a phrase. It is taking a stand and saying, “I will be responsible for any debt I incur and will pay for any damage I cause others.” But if you don’t get to keep the rewards that your conduct may occasion then who in the world would want to be responsible and take the time to think and be responsible for themselves?

There can be no victory unless there is a choice. To succeed or fail. To use one’s own talent and hard work to make a better life or to blame others when one does not have the type of life portrayed on television. One of Life’s big lessons is to overcome failure. If you never do anything you never fail. If every need is provided for you under some entitlement then why in the world would you even want to work?    

Spudley’s Rule # 14 tells us “Always have a plan. If you don’t then someone may make one for you, and you may not like theirs at all.”