Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Classical Economics and Our Health Care Blindspot

I have previously written that socialism, i.e. the usurpation of the individual’s initiative to be charitable by the government by means of legislation converts charity, mercy, compassion and love to obligation, duty and litigation. See “Healthcare: America’s Blind Spot.” In following a path of socialism in the form of socialized health care, the American government will, due to moral physics woven into the fabric of creation, inculcate in the following generation a failure to see these moral values. When government inhabits the field of charity by law and obligation, good deeds cease to be good and become obligation, subject only to claims of right through litigation. And as good ceases to be seen as good, the culture loses a vision of moral excellence. In the end, the compassion necessary for the proper administration of healthcare will become a blind spot for the American culture.

I expressed the moral physics propounded in Deuteronomy that a nation will be blessed to the extent that its people voluntarily give through church and other individual voluntary initiatives to the poor and needy. To the extent the resources to be morally good to the poor and needy are taken away through taxes, the less the people will be blessed. There is another way to view this blind spot, and that is through the lens of classical economics. Perhaps it is more accurate to claim that the theories of classical economics support the claim of moral physics which I have already described.

Guido Hulsmann in his lecture at the Ludwig von Mises Institute (at Mises.org) on “The Division of Labor and Social Order” describes how the division of labor permits human society to become more productive. In the presentation of some very simple case studies he portrays how two men capable of doing two separate tasks with differing degrees of effectiveness can increase production by allowing each to specialize in the task in which he excels. Even in the case where one is more effective in both tasks, both are benefited by permitting the superior performer to increase his specialization in the area where he is comparatively more superior. The only case in which there is no mutual benefit is when the two are equal in all respects. In all cases but this latter, the two are mutually benefitted by their cooperation. The division of labor encourages peace because even if the two were to have animosity toward each other, they understand the mutual benefit of their cooperation.

How then does this apply to the socialism of Obamacare? Socialism as government policy is a legally enforced equalization of the outcomes of all efforts. Socialism, contrary to popular belief, is not an economic theory. It is tyranny pure and simple, for it is based on the taking from the production of some for the purpose of distributing the fruits of that production to others. Socialism is legislated theft. The outcome of such legislated theft is the elimination of the benefits derived from a beneficial division of labor. The two in every respect are made equal in outcome. The benefits of cooperation which support a moral and well ordered society are eliminated. In the words of Hulsmann, only by an extraordinary measure of love can the cooperation be maintained.

Keep in mind that the equalization of status does not produce love; it only lessens the natural forces maintaining the cooperation of relationships. Love must come from inside an individual; it cannot be created by outside forces. Since, as I have already shown, the replacement of law for compassion will necessarily create a blind spot in our culture to what is morally laudable, the culture will lose its perspective of the beauty of love and compassion. Therefore, there will be less reason to love that which is beautiful in compassion and will in turn provide less support to the culture socialism will create.

Let us turn back this destruction which the federal government is forcing on the states. Let us enact the Healthcare Freedom Act.

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