Comments on: Those selfish sick folks

By: Rose

Rose — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 18:38:54 +0000

Right on, Galt! If those goddamn old people would have taken care of themselves they’d stop dropping dead all the time!

But she failed to mention The Secret. If you stay away from sick people, who will make you think sick thoughts, and keep a picture of yourself in your mind as totally healthy, the universe will deliver perfect health to you! But, sssshhhh, don’t tell, it’s a Secret!

By: Mike

Mike — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 01:34:15 +0000

Y’know, a real libertarian would simply say it’s tough shit for the old and sick, not try to moralize her way out of having to care. The beauty of true libertarian social darwinism is that there’s no compassion needed in an amoral system.

God, these neo-libertarians just don’t have the stomach for it, do they?! I suppose its because they recognize, deep down, that they couldn’t make it in the Hobbesian world they advocate for other people, so they might as well hedge their bets.

And that’s how you get this sort of sloppy apologetics. “It’s old peoples’ fault for” … for what? Being old? Damn them for not painting portraits of themselves to absorb the aging process!

It was easier before Libertarianism Lite. Back then we had worthy enemies: sleek, fat bastards who weren’t afraid to say, “I’ve got mine, Jack. Screw you.”

By: Meowser

Meowser — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 04:42:43 +0000

Can I cast a spell on this horrible Jane Galt woman that will make her gain 100 pounds she can’t lose even with 24/7 puking? Oh please oh please?

By: binky

binky — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 01:38:15 +0000

A few years ago I sat on a university committee that was to select the health plan to be made available to graduate students. Some of these ideas about who “over and underuses” health care got batted around. At the time, there was a lot of concern about “those AIDS patients” who would bankrupt the system, but otherwise the age group to be covered was thought to be cheap. Well, some of us social scientists did a little digging, and it turns out, the biggest “overusers” who had the highest costs over the longest period of time were pregnant women with high risk pregnancies, leading to multiple/premature births, and long term hospitalization/care for the very low birth weight children. So, yeah. Young healthy (at least before getting pregnant) people can be very expensive.

By: Kat

Kat — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 17:21:53 +0000

The standard for what is considered “healthy” and “safe” has changed over the years, so do we hold these old, sick folks to standards that we know now or that they were taught then? For instance, smoking and drinking alcohol was not considered unsafe when my mother was pregnant in the late 60’s. Eggs and bacon was considered a “healthy” breakfast back in the day. No one wore helmets when they played hockey, football, or rode bicycles.

Do we hold them accountable for these infractions because we know better now?

The whole argument seems a little shortsighted.

By: Linnaeus

Linnaeus — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 14:19:52 +0000

I found the comment about not going to the doctor enough a little ironic, since a common argument against socialized medicine/universal health care insurance is that people under such a regime overconsume their benefits and go to the doctor when they don’t need to do so.