In our 3 most recent posts, I’ve seen a trend appearing. As a society, we struggle when anyone attempts to mandate behavior for the masses. From how we teach our kids about Santa to how we care for the least of these to yes, even how and if we celebrate the Christmas season, we continually have persons who want to tell us what we can and cannot do. Isn’t that our challenge?
I mean, the challenge on both sides of the equation within contemporary Christmas controversies is that people keep wanting to dictate what we do. People keep wanting to mandate the specifics of how a holiday can or can’t or shouldn’t be celebrated. We aren’t ok allowing the freedom of individual decision-making. Why is that? What’s the motive?
I see this pattern repeated in multiple scenarios. Sometimes it’s packaged up a little nicer and neater — arguably a little more covertly — but there exist multiple examples of entities attempting to mandate behavior for the masses, attempting to require specific actions on our part.
Isn’t that the reality behind Pres. Obama’s broken healthcare promise — that “if you like your healthcare plan, you can keep it?” In my opinion, the President is too smart to have not known that such was untrue. He’s a brilliant man; he had to have known the implications of the law for which he was advocating.
Please know I am not declaring that Pres. Obama lied. Let’s face it; anytime we assert that one another is a liar, it complicates the conversation. The dialogue becomes more passionate and emotional, and the temptation to become disrespectful increases exponentially. So let me truthfully, transparently assert what I believe to be the primary motivation for the untruth: those advocating for Obamacare are attempting to mandate behavior for the masses — and convince the rest of us that such is good.
All healthcare plans starting after 2014 are required to offer the same benefits but will have different out-of-pocket costs. Question: do we need the same benefits? Does one size truly fit all? Do men and women need the same healthcare? Do men need maternity care? Do persons in varied geographic areas need the same care? How about the elderly?
Friends, I’m not attempting to be disrespectful in my questions; the reality is that by mandating the behavior for the masses, we end up mandating things for some that are unnecessary.
So what’s the motive? Is the motive as some would suggest that people aren’t bright enough — that they don’t know what’s good for them — and so someone has to control the decision-making?
Or… is the motive more economic — that the only way to make the policy work for some is to mandate the behavior for all?
Under Obamacare, it’s great to be a woman. Women can’t be charged more than men. On one hand that sounds great; we can hear the rallying calls that no longer will women be discriminated against. But let me also ask the next logical question: is it discrimination if the woman’s care costs more because it actually covers more?
My sense is that in the case of Obamacare, the motive is economic. The federal government charges the men more to pay for the women; they charge the young more to pay for the elderly; and they charge the upper and middle classes more to pay for the lower class. Mandating the behavior of the masses is necessary in order to make the plan work. What any individual needs is less significant than the macroeconomic approach necessary to support the totality of the system.
The lingering question is whether or not such mandating is good.
P.S. Merry Christmas. Happy Festivus, too.
Respectfully,
AR