Monday, April 26, 2010

Hsieh Oped at PJM: "ObamaCare: Insurers Need Permission to Survive; Citizens, to Live"

The April 25, 2010 edition of PajamasMedia has published my latest OpEd, "ObamaCare: Insurers Need Permission to Survive; Citizens, to Live".

My primary theme is that ObamaCare and other recent developments in Massachusetts bring us perilously close to what Ayn Rand calls the "ultimate inversion" where tyrannical government can do anything it please, whereas ordinary citizens can do nothing without government permission.

My secondary theme is that the Tea Party movement must move to the next level of promoting proper limited government, based on the principle of individual rights.

Here is the introduction:
Suppose our government declared that everyone had the “right” to a nice steak dinner. The government would require restaurants to sell $50 steak dinners to all comers. But to keep prices affordable, restaurants could only charge $25. No restaurant could survive long under such a scheme, and most Americans would be outraged at such a blatant violation of restaurant owners’ rights.

But that is exactly what is happening with health insurance in Massachusetts. Events unfolding now in the Bay State should serve as a warning to the rest of America of the danger ObamaCare poses to our health insurance, our health care — and ultimately our lives.
(Read the full text of "ObamaCare: Insurers Need Permission to Survive; Citizens, to Live".)