Quote from: Emily on Yesterday at 01:59:42 AM
Let's care for individuals throughout their lives, including affordable universal health care to improve life and life expectancy for the nearly forty-five million uninsured Americans.
Quote from: Verde:
And lets do it on the backs of hard working productive Americans who planned for such events and just steal from their hard work ........
Your quote illustrates the radical-right world view, as does Dan Quayle's acceptance speech to the Republican convention in 1992. He said, in a rhetorical question arguing against the graduated income tax, "Why should the best people be punished?" Rich people are "the best people" according to the radical-right value system.
Let's follow where this value system leads:
Wealthy people tend to be the good people, a natural elite that has achieved its position through the morality of discipline. Competition for scarce resources also imposes discipline, and thus serves morality. The poor remain poor because they lack discipline needed to prosper. The poor, therefore deserve to be poor and miserable, and serve the wealthy. The wealthy need and deserve poor people to serve them. The vast and increasing gap between the rich and the poor is both natural and good.
To the extent that markets are "free," they serve the disciplined good people to accumulate wealth. Free markets are moral: If everyone pursues his own profit, the profit for all will be maximized. Regulation is bad; it gets in the way of the free pursuit of profit.The fundamental problem with this world view gives no importance to the values of empathy (the capacity to connect with other people) and responsibility, and the core values that follow from these ideals:
1. Protection (for those that need it: children, elderly, poor, etc.)
2. Fulfillment in life (so that others can lead meaningful lives as you would want to)
3. Freedom (because to seek fulfillment, you must be free)
4. Opportunity (because leading a fulfilling life requires opportunities to explore what is meaningful and fruitful)
5. Fairness (because unfairness can stifle freedom and opportunity)
6. Prosperity (because a certain base amount of material wealth is necessary to lead a fulfilling life and pay for shelter, food and health)
7. Community (because no one makes it alone, and communities are necessary for anyone to lead a fulfilling life)
Franklin Roosevelt said in his second inaugural address, "In our personal ambitions we are individualists. But in our seeking for economic and political progress as a nation, we all go up or we all go down, as one people." Citizens bring together their common wealth for the common good in order to build an infrastructure that benefits all and that contributes crucially to the pursuit of individual goals. This is the essence of the Common Good Principle.
(Warren Buffet has famously observed that he could not have achieved his wealth had he lived in Bangladesh, where the banking system and the stock market leave much to be desired.)
The common wealth provides
protection for the common good: police, military, firefighters and courts.
It allows for
fulfillment in life and creates
opportunities, thereby enhancing the common good: schools, universities, national parks, roads, a banking infrastructure to start a business. The more money one makes, the more one tends to use the common wealth, and the more responsibility one has to its maintenance. (This is an important moral basis for progressive taxation.)
The common wealth creates
freedoms for the common good. Freedom is enshrined by our Constitution including the Bill of Rights, is protected by the courts, and is enhanced by the common wealth. The social safety net and Social Security grant us
freedom from want.
The Common Good Principle promotes fairness and equality. A progressive government guards against discrimination and works to prevent under-served communities. It operates on the principle that
we're all in this together, not that you are on your own. Being together means that we all get the benefits of everyone working for the common good, as well as the responsibilities.
Using the common wealth for the common good creates
prosperity and builds
community.
Why universal health care? Because it is for the common good. Healthy citizens will mean a healthy nation. Disease, after all, is transmittable. Also, given the wealth of our nation, it is shameful that we do not take the human dignity of our citizens more seriously. Many of those without health insurance are the working poor, who do not have jobs that include health care. And of course the majority of those without health care are children. Universal health care is also about protecting those who need protection most.
to pay for those who illegally enter our country,
Now why do you bring up illegals? The real problem is Illegal Employers, who hire illegal aliens so they don't have to pay decent wages or pay taxes. Illegal employers hurt all Americans when they hire undocumented workers because it drives down wages. They also drive the system that brings thousands of undocumented workers into our country every year. They would not be here if they could find no work.
have indiscriminate sex without any thought to pregnancy,
It would be easier to have safe-sex if contraceptives were free. When I was one of the working poor, before California made coverage for contraceptives a requirement for all health insurance companies here, I paid $35/pack for a supply of birth control pills. It was a cost I could not afford at the time. As for condoms being offered free to high school students, I never got one!
..... Take a condom or take a pill but don't listing to anything about abstinence.
Are you preaching abstinence? That sounds strange cumming from you!
and bring crashing down the best health care system in the world all at the same time.
A health care system that is based on the ability of the patient to pay, and excludes millions, hardly qualifies as one of the best health care systems in the world.
Really? Think you need to do some research on Fetal Tissue usage here in the US and the world and there are those on the left that want to use stem cells from these sources.
I worked in the Biotechnology field for a number of years, remember? So I know my statement is true: Only embryonic cells can be used for stem cell research. Fetal cells are already differentiated and thus are no longer stem cells. I would suggest you follow your own advice about the research.
Quote from: Emily on Yesterday at 01:59:42 AM
The problem is that this is a slippery slope ruling, to ban a procedure that is almost never performed. Also it excludes the usual exemption "except when necessary to save the life of the mother."
Verde: Because its not necessary. There are many other ways of removing the child from the mother without risking her life.
You are quite right, there are other ways of removing the child from the mother without risking her life. But the other method is just as gruesome. There are "intact" extractions (aka Partial Birth Abortions) as well as the more typical extraction method where the fetus is ripped apart while it is removed. The doctor may take up to 10-15 passes before it is removed. The anti-choice forces appealed to the emotions of the politicians and the public to get a ban on the partial birth abortion. Typical D&Es are just as gruesome. So what is to stop all D&E procedures from being banned? Hence this is why it is called a slippery slope issue.
Well I'm tired now and off to bed .... good night!
