Luxuries & Rights: one and the same?

I sent the following letter to the Midland Daily News on Thursday:

Dear Editor,

In response to: “Our view: A Changing Country” 11/6/08, I would like
to submit that smaller margins for Republican candidates and split
ticket ballots do not indicate independent thinking on the part of the
voter.

In general, voters today vote much the same way they eat, shop, and
sell: out of their own self-interest. If a politician promises more
subsidies, more healthcare, more stimulus checks and more of that god-
fearing, American oil, instead of that evil terrorist oil from other
countries, they will win the day. We live in an entitlement society
where luxuries have become wants, wants have become needs, and needs
have become rights.

Independent thinkers live independently, rejecting the use of force to
spend other people’s money on their own interests. Unfortunately,
independent thinkers today are few and far between. They are
generally not heard in the ballot box or at a stump speech, but
pursuing the good of society in the private sector: working compassion
for the poor using their own time and money, working a forty hour week
and generally minding their own business.

The moral of the story for both major political parties is not, as the
Daily News states: “Don't take voters for granted”, but rather to take
true, and unchanging principles of governance seriously. The
voluminous wisdom of America’s founding fathers would be a good place
to start.

Stay Healthy & Free

I sent this to the Detroit Free Press today:

Dear Editor:
In “Bad medicine for a hopeful nation”, Robert Goldberg hits the nail on the head, warning that ‘patient neglect is endemic to public insurance programs.’ Indeed, consumer neglect in varying degrees is endemic to all government programs.
In his groundbreaking treatise on economics, describing how nations become wealthy, Adam Smith showed that each man serving his own self-interest serves the public good – A seeming paradox and unacceptable truth for some. But economic laws cannot be repealed: a single payer or centralized system will always fail. This is because people best make decisions on the local level with knowledge unique only to them - out of reach from bureaucrats.

In trying to repeal one economic law, the next administration could call down on this country the full brunt of others. Lets hope they leave Adam Smith’s ‘invisible hand’ alone – allowing a free people to remain free and healthy.