Optimus Template

This section contains a collection of essays (linked on the menu to the right) that have had a long-lasting impact on my thinking.  I highly recommend them.  Of course, each person is free to agree or disagree with them, but I think it is important for each of us to wrestle with the ideas contained in them.

The Law

The essay The Law was written by Frederic Bastiat (1801-1850), a French economist, statesman, and author. He did most of his writing during the years just before - and immediately following -- the Revolution of February 1848. This was the period when France was rapidly turning to complete socialism. As a Deputy to the Legislative Assembly, Mr. Bastiat was studying and explaining each socialist fallacy as it appeared. But most of his countrymen chose to ignore his logic.

The Law has turned out to be a work of post-Enlightenment prophecy.  It is as relevant in present-day America as it was in France in Bastiat's time.  In America today as in France then there is a great confusion over the goals and aspirations of America as a society and the role of government in society.  Americans as a people have a number of noble ideals and goals, among them taking care of the poor, the sick and the elderly.  These goals, however, are the responsibility of the citizenry and not the government, else the government becomes an instrument of plunder.  As Bastiat points out, the power of the government ultimately lies in the use of deadly force or the threat of force.  No matter how many intellectual hoops we may try to jump through, there can never be 'compassion at the point of a gun'. 

Failure to heed Bastiat's warning is rapidly turning America into a society in which many people believe that it is his or her entitlement to live at the expense of everyone else.

Healthcare is Not a Right

Healthcare is Not a Right was originally a speech delivered by Leonard Peikoff (1933-present) in response to the proposed Clinton Healthcare plan in 1993.  Even though the essay was a response to that particular proposal, it contains many ideas and themes that are as relevant today.  As with Bastiat, Peikoff uncovers fallacies in American thinking about the notion of "rights."  He forcefully articulates his position that no matter how noble the ideal, one simply cannot have a "right" to the products or skills of others.  In the same way that you or I could not walk into a grocery store, take things off the shelves and walk out the door proclaiming that we have a "right to food", we (or the government) cannot simply declare that we have a "right" to the skills of a physician.

In this way, Peikoff strikes the same chord as Bastiat: as a society we have a noble goal of taking care of our sick, but the use of government force to meet this goal is not, and can never be the answer.

I want to make one thing perfectly clear because it is a common point of misunderstanding about what Peikoff is saying.  The assertion that healthcare is not a right does not mean that we as a society should not care whether people have healthcare or not.  On the contrary, it is a deeply embedded part of our cultural tradition to provide care to the needy and the suffering.  Americans are giving people and millions are donated each year to medical charities, not because they are 'trying to give people their rights', but because we, as a society, value compassion.  None of the things that we require for sustenance are rights.   We can either work to obtain them or rely on the compassion of others.  We cannot morally take them by force or ask our government to take them by force on our behalf.