There is a sign alongside of the Crosstown Freeway
in south Minneapolis that says that the very best heart care
should be the closest health care. "Which one of us,"
I wondered, should it be closest to? You, or me, or her?"
It cannot be closest to everyone. So who gets it?
There is an intense scorn for government.
Taxes are called theft. Regulations, even regulations
of the quality of our food, or access to health care,
are considered to be "unwarranted government intrusions",
a meddling of politicians into our freedoms.
Even the most determined of Libertarians is willing to tolerate
some government: our military, police protection, perhaps,
probably sewers, but not necessarily public schools,
social security, laws about discrimination, or mandatory
health care. If you want fire protection, sign up for it!
If you want Mayo medical care, pony up for it.
If you want the very best heart care, and can afford it,
good for you! "But we don't owe you food, health care,
heat in the winter, when you retire. Plan for it!"
Most people aren't that extreme. Most people are willing
to pay for city snow plows on the street where they live.
Most are willing to pay for clean water and public utilities.
They often believe, of course, that it costs too much,
and that public employees are lazy, so they grumble.
What we seem to have lost is a sense of identification
with each other; the belief that our own welfare depends,
in a thousand ways, on the well-being of most of us.
We act as if we were cowboys on a frontier, responsible
for providing our own law and order, probably at the end
of a gun. It is a few of us against a lot of no-goods,
so we will work hard, drive our herds to Abilene,
pay for our own ranch, and cut down the barbed wire.
Our school systems are now about 30th best in the world.
Thirtieth best is nowhere near best! How did that happen?
It happened because we have not understood that if we want
to prosper, our nation has to compete and prosper, as a nation.
For the nation to prosper, we have to educate a lot of
engineers, and scientists, and musicians, doctors and nurses.
For that to happen, we have to have a first-rate system
of educating everybody who can learn and, to do that,
we shall have to put some of our brightest people in our
classrooms; not the left-overs who flunked calculus
and aren't sure whether the universe has evolved.
It is similarly true that to prosper as a nation, we need
safe food, easily available health care, a way for people
to retire from the workforce when the time comes and know
they will be OK, safe bridges, public transportation, parks,
places to care for the mentally ill, and mostly, a sense
that we can do this together, because we certainly cannot do it
one-by-one, "I've got mine! Go get your own!", and
the horses be damned!
We will not succeed if we become a nation of prosperous
free-loaders selling get-rich schemes to people who think
that everyone can live closest to the very best heart care;
that all of us can win the lottery.
in south Minneapolis that says that the very best heart care
should be the closest health care. "Which one of us,"
I wondered, should it be closest to? You, or me, or her?"
It cannot be closest to everyone. So who gets it?
There is an intense scorn for government.
Taxes are called theft. Regulations, even regulations
of the quality of our food, or access to health care,
are considered to be "unwarranted government intrusions",
a meddling of politicians into our freedoms.
Even the most determined of Libertarians is willing to tolerate
some government: our military, police protection, perhaps,
probably sewers, but not necessarily public schools,
social security, laws about discrimination, or mandatory
health care. If you want fire protection, sign up for it!
If you want Mayo medical care, pony up for it.
If you want the very best heart care, and can afford it,
good for you! "But we don't owe you food, health care,
heat in the winter, when you retire. Plan for it!"
Most people aren't that extreme. Most people are willing
to pay for city snow plows on the street where they live.
Most are willing to pay for clean water and public utilities.
They often believe, of course, that it costs too much,
and that public employees are lazy, so they grumble.
What we seem to have lost is a sense of identification
with each other; the belief that our own welfare depends,
in a thousand ways, on the well-being of most of us.
We act as if we were cowboys on a frontier, responsible
for providing our own law and order, probably at the end
of a gun. It is a few of us against a lot of no-goods,
so we will work hard, drive our herds to Abilene,
pay for our own ranch, and cut down the barbed wire.
Our school systems are now about 30th best in the world.
Thirtieth best is nowhere near best! How did that happen?
It happened because we have not understood that if we want
to prosper, our nation has to compete and prosper, as a nation.
For the nation to prosper, we have to educate a lot of
engineers, and scientists, and musicians, doctors and nurses.
For that to happen, we have to have a first-rate system
of educating everybody who can learn and, to do that,
we shall have to put some of our brightest people in our
classrooms; not the left-overs who flunked calculus
and aren't sure whether the universe has evolved.
It is similarly true that to prosper as a nation, we need
safe food, easily available health care, a way for people
to retire from the workforce when the time comes and know
they will be OK, safe bridges, public transportation, parks,
places to care for the mentally ill, and mostly, a sense
that we can do this together, because we certainly cannot do it
one-by-one, "I've got mine! Go get your own!", and
the horses be damned!
We will not succeed if we become a nation of prosperous
free-loaders selling get-rich schemes to people who think
that everyone can live closest to the very best heart care;
that all of us can win the lottery.
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