If you have leftist friends on social media odds are you’ve encountered the propaganda machine known as Occupy Democrats at least once. With well over 7 million page follows and likes on Facebook it’s one of the more prominent left wing pages on social media. They spend their days sharing main stream media stories and articles and posting their, if I’m being honest, dishonest and second rate memes of their own design.
One such meme caught my attention and inspired me to write this article and trying to actually report the truth as I see it embedded deep within the moderate nature of the meme itself.
Now that you’ve read that I’m sure you’re quickly forming your own opinions and phrases to debunk it, but don’t worry I’ve saved you the trouble. Let’s attack this line by line.
”I don’t want free healthcare I want my taxes to pay for it and not for war”
On the subject of not using tax dollars to police the globe and empire build you’re going to have to change the subject to get an argument out of me. Considering the recent exposure of 21 trillion dollars in pentagon funding that is completely and utterly unaccounted for even the most prominent supporters of the War on Terror must surely take a moment and truly examine whether or not were spending too much on our armed forces.
It’s absurd to me that we should shift the massive amount of government spending from one branch to another i.e. from national defense to Medicare for all. If the federal government has proven anything, it’s proven it is wholly and completely irresponsible when it comes to spending.
The line also strays from the arguable standard that the wealthy 1% and the corporations would pay for the healthcare of the American population through high taxation that has been flouted by everyone from Bernie Sanders toAlexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
It is estimated that Medicare for all would cost roughly 32 trillion dollars over ten years. That number would in reality almost double with the necessary addition of more bureaucrats to monitor and facilitate the program. Much like the federal governments student loan programs the cost of healthcare services would likely rise significantly due to increased demand due to people seeking out care for more and more trivial illnesses such as colds etc.
I believe as has been proven in other nations with a single payer system that it would also take a toll on quality and frequency of care due to increased market demand, but limited increases in supply.
Bottom line is this, with more government comes more regulation and a decrease in efficiency. Take a look at the veterans administration if you need a real-world look at what single payer healthcare would look like in America.
“I don’t want money for nothing I want the opportunity for a good job that pays for at least my basic needs”
A somewhat reasonable request on the surface, I think this is what the majority of Americans want, to be able to pay their bills, house and feed their families and have a little but left over at the end of the month. However let’s go a little deeper.
We have a problem in this country and that problem is envy, envy of what others have that we do not. Along with that envy comes a victim mentality, “we can’t get ahead” “The system is rigged” “You can’t make a decent living anymore in America.” I would pose a simple question, what have YOU the individual done to improve your skills and knowledge to help you attain that better paying job? What have you the individual done to better yourself? When is the last time that YOU the individual taken a hard long look in the mirror and examined why you are where you are in your life, the choices and decisions that brought you to this place, and then perhaps the hardest questions to answer. What are YOU going to do differently to make an impact on your own life. In addition to self-examination, we must also examine the fact that basic needs vary from individual to individual, making an assumption that this line is talking about the almost holy (at least to leftists) attainment of the glorious $15 dollar and hour federal minimum wage. Who is to say that $15 dollars an hour is going to be enough to support a family of 8 or 10 or 12?
My point is the responsibility of meeting your needs is no ones responsibility save YOU the individual. No one owes you anything, but you owe everything to yourself.
”I don’t expect every election to bring the result I want, I just want my vote to count”
I’m going to make another assumption here and assume that this statement is referring to one of the lefts new favorite whipping boys, the Electoral College. In recent memory two republican presidents have lost the popular vote but still won the presidency George W. Bush and Donald J. Trump.
Based on that assumption the left wants California and New York to decide every presidential election. That would be a true democracy in their opinion.
All I can say I sure am thankful we live in a republic and not a democracy that way 51% of the population can’t tell the other 49% what to do. The abolition of the electoral college would leave the majority of the 50 states with no voice or power to determine the outcomes of presidential elections. The idea is ludicrous. 2 states should not ever have the power to determine what is best for the entire country based solely upon the amount of Democrats that live and vote in those states.
”I don’t want business to be unprofitable, I want them out of the regulatory and political process.”
This is perhaps the statement I find the least objection with, crony capitalism has created a climate where there are artificial barriers to entry into many aspects of what used to be a free and open market. Crony capitalism, in my opinion, is responsible for everything from licence requirements to perhaps even the minimum wage itself. Lobbyists and their ilk seek out legislation that benefits the large and ultimately negatively effects small businesses and the entrepreneur.
However even with all the barriers and hoops to jump through it is still not impossible to see an opportunity and capitalize on it. People used to say that Walmart was going to take over the world and be around forever, then along cane Amazon and once again the way we consume goods was forever changed.
It’s all about looking for and seizing opportunities as individuals. There are new millionaires every single day in this country. Go out and get yours.
”I don’t want the wealthiest Americans to pay for everything I want them to pay their fair share.”
This statement raises several questions in my mind, first and foremost who are the wealthiest Americans ?
Based on research I have done it appears that to be a part of “the 1%” you have to make somewhere between $345,000 and $400,000 dollars a year.
Second, what are they paying for?
I don’t believe the handout mentality would stop with just healthcare, I believe that eventually housing, food, and general living expenses for the poorest among us would make its way onto the legislatures agenda, after all the welfare state didn’t just stop with Government Cheese did it now.
Now perhaps the most important question, what exactly is someone’s fair share to subsidize someone else’s life. The answer is of course subjective, should billionaires pay the most, or should we just tax the wealthy an equal percentage across the board?
There’s a deeper issue here.
The issue isn’t what or how much they owe us, the issue is why people believe they are owed anything that someone else worked for in the first place. You didn’t start that business, you didn’t make smart investments and capitalize on the market. So why do you think you’re owed one single red cent of someone else’s money?
It comes back around to envy, they want what they didn’t earn simply because someone else has it and they do not. If we do not begin to change ourselves and our own mentalities about what’s fair and what is owed, I’m afraid we’re headed down a path that will lead us further away from liberty and closer and closer to totalitarianism. It is up to us to do what we can to educate and help as many people as possible through voluntary action.
In conclusion success and failure, wealth and poverty, are the responsibility of the individual. It is up to us as individuals to carve our own path in the world and seek our own fortunes, not to rely on the forced theft from those that produce given to those that do not.
