Uncertainty

I heard a story today about a man, 47 years old, who committed suicide last week.  He was married and the father of five children, ages 10 to 19.  He was described as “the last person you think would ever do this.”  He left a vague note that said he was tired of the burden of making mortgage payments, etc., etc.

No one knows what happened.

As I pondered this, I began to confront just how uncertain life feels at the moment.

There is, of course, the national economic crisis that continues to loom.  No one knows right now what our economic future holds.  If the construction industry is any indication, there’s a long way to go.  It’s hard to feel certain about jobs and income right now.  It’s also hard to have confidence in investments.  Housing prices have fallen, and the sustainability of the market recovery is unknown.  It seems it all could change in a moment.

In the face of this, the House passed a health care reform bill last weekend with a ten year cost or more than one trillion dollars.  How, given the economic straits of the country, they concluded this is advisable, is beyond me.  I suppose they hope that if they promise access to health care to everyone, this will create confidence.

But it does just the opposite for me.  It makes me very uncertain about the quality of leadership in Washington.

On one hand, I am uncertain what this means for the economic life of my family.  I fear, in the end, this can only drive up the cost of health care, either directly, or indirectly.  Call me simple minded, or naive, but how can it do otherwise if the bill creates a huge new bureaucracy designed to assure care for millions of people who currently aren’t in the system?  Someone has to pay for that.  If not me, and millions like me, then who?

Only the rich you say?  Do you honestly expect me to believe the cost won’t find its way down to me?  Or that taxes on the rich, combined with an already incredibly tight credit market, won’t slow the economic recovery, and thus impact me through a back door?

History gives me no reason to believe that governmental intervention in anything will make it more cost efficient.  Worse yet, the bill contains provisions that make it mandatory, with penalties for non-compliance.  How will people afford this?  How will I afford it without having to sacrifice in other areas (like Catholic school tuition), especially if my personal circumstance turns for the worse?

On another hand, I am uncertain what this will mean for the availability and quality of health care in the country.  There is no doubt that similar plans in other countries have caused declines in both.  The existing system is not perfect, but it saved my father’s life.  He was diagnosed with lymphoma, and given 50/50 odds.  He survived, thanks to the work of a dedicated doctor at the Mayo Clinic.

Under this new system, would he have been able to travel from Indiana to Minnesota to obtain cutting edge treatment from the doctor of his choice?  Will new cutting edge treatments even be manifested, enabling cures for currently untreatable illnesses?  Will promising young men (like the man who treated my father) still choose medicine as a career even if they are no longer rewarded for the immense time and effort it takes to excel?

On a third hand, what if the cost of this bill is more than we can bear?  We were trillions in debt before the bailouts and stimulus plan.  They added trillions more.  Now the cost of this bill will be stacked on that already teetering mountain.

I suppose it is not fashionable to think there is a limit, but there must be.  Every prosperous empire has, in the end, come to ruin.  Every other ad on the radio today is encouraging me to invest in the safe harbor of gold.  News stories about most of our debt being held by foreign governments (the Chinese in particular), and the possible ramifications of that, abound.  A few short months ago I never doubted the staying power of the US.  Now I am uncertain about our ability to control our own destiny.  I wonder, even now, are we the economic superpower we believe ourselves to be?  If not, what are the implications for my children’s future?

The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq continue, with no clear victory in sight.  The war in Afghanistan has actually expanded into Pakistan, a country with known nuclear capabilities.  The Iranians are intent on developing those same capabilities.  An American citizen of Jordanian descent just went on a shooting rampage at Ford Hood.  Uncertainty about security on our own soil does not top my personal list, but it’s there.

Most dear to my heart is the core issue of American Freedom.  This health care bill assaults freedom in a way that has never taken place in my adult life.  The most recent parallel is LBJ, and the passage of the Great Society legislation in the 1960’s.  (I won’t list here everything that entails.  You can follow the link and decide for yourself how much of the “Great Society” has actually come to pass, and how much of it fueled the burdens that bring us to where we are now.)

Where does government derive the power to force me to buy health care for myself, or to pay for the health care of someone else?  What other right am I forced to pay the government to enjoy?   If I wish to take my chances, and self insure, and pay whatever bills come along as they come along, even if it means I end up destitute, shouldn’t I be free to do so?

What will happen if I choose non-compliance, and refuse to pay the fines?  Will the government lock me up because I won’t buy health care for myself?  Will they leave my family without its father, husband and provider?  Would that benefit society?  Will they confiscate my wealth at the point of a gun to pay my fines, forcing my children into public schools where they will not be allowed to pray, to exercise their first amendment freedoms of worship and speech?  Will they perhaps confiscate my house in order to pay the fines I accrue, leaving my family homeless?

Do I have any rights at all to make an individual decision on the issue?

I would like to say that I am only uncertain about the future of American freedom.  But I must confess I verge on anger.  This legislation is not yet law.  I am attempting to be patient, to hope that the Senate will come to its senses.  But I am not confident.  The Senate contains enough Democrats that I assume something will be passed, and there is little likelihood I will find it acceptable.

I watched The Patriot last night.  This outtake is nine minutes long.  The passage I reference starts 2:35 in, if you want to skip to it.

Benjamin Martin sums up my current view when he says this:

“Tell me, why should I trade one tyrant three thousand miles away, for three thousands tyrants one mile away.  An elected legislature can trample a man’s rights as easily as a King can.”

I wonder, if this bill passes, is a revolution far behind?