Health Care Changes

     Let me put a little follow up here about my feelings on Health Care Reform and why it should be stopped. Specifically I think that if we enact universal health care in America, we change who we are as Americans, and I don't want that. Let me use our old friends the ancient Egyptians as an example.

     Let's visit a typical ancient Egyptian city.

     Here we are hovering over a vast desert striped with swaths of green where agricultural development is taking place using irrigation from a nearby river. Is the river the Nile? Probably, but at this height there's no way to tell for sure. We see building and houses, and what appears to be a bustling population working the fields and drifting through the streets. Going in for a closer look at the city we notice that the population is moving along the roads and byways. No one seems to be in a particular hurry and often stops to talk with neighbors and fellow travelers. Some of the buildings resolve themselves into shops and dining establishments and we notice what seems like the precursor of fast food restaurants. A hum of city life gains in strength as we approach, but it's still to far away to make out individual conversations clearly. This is just as well because neither you or I understand ancient Egyptian.
     Going even closer we can make out individual people industriously going about their business, or just relaxing in the heat of the day. All seems calm but suddenly we notice... slaves! Yep, the more we look the more clearly we see signs this culture has a rigid cast system that incorporates a slave workforce. It's not pretty, but neither is it good or bad. It's just there.
     So we have a choice. We can drift away and forward in time a few thousand years to see how they're doing now, or we can descend on these people and teach them equal rights. You and I are pretty persuasive speakers, and once we get the language down we should be able to establish a more moral ethical system of society on these guys. There are good reasons for doing this. Equal rights will benefit their city, encourage invention, prosper the economy and establish a better quality of life for all residents. Each ancient Egyptian here will enjoy greater efficiency in agricultural and economic development. Not a bad deal.
     But if we do this, they stop being ancient Egyptians. They'll start being something else, call them enlightened Egyptians or progressive Egyptians or something. The point is, their cultural identity will change. Right now they see themselves as ancient Egyptians which by it's very nature means participating and supporting a caste system with slaves.
     We've seen enough of these guys, let's get out of here and visit a place a little closer to home. Namely, home in modern America.
     We are modern Americans. This means we participate and support a culture that allows the rich to live longer and the poor to die off sooner. Being a modern American means if you get really sick, you give up all your money until you're on your own. Once again, this is neither good or bad.
     If we get universal health care, or to a smaller extent reform the current heath care system, then we cease to be modern Americans. We'd start being enlightened Americans or progressive Americans or some other such thing. The point is, we'd change who we are.
     Looking at the town hall fiascoes and understanding the cloak and dagger politics behind the scenes which feature enough cynical manipulation and vested interest deception to fill a shelf of Mickey Spillane novels, I can't see us willing to change our cultural identity yet. Maybe in the next generation. Maybe. But for us to enact real health care reform, we'd have to be a people who not only want equality for all Americans, but also a society resistant to cynical political manipulation. I don't think we're quite ready to take that step.