Dear Friends,
It seems to me, everything in our society, civilization, and media, are being politicized. Every action, attitude and assumption by the individual and or group, is characterized politically. As we all know, to politicize something takes it out of the realm of personal freedom and individual choice, and brings it into the arena of political favor. This trend has profoundly negative consequences for America and the World.
Government lives and dies by politics. Everything government does is driven by politics. Those that are in government are, by definition, good at politics, and so it is in their self interest to politicize everything. This is simply human nature. Those who have some advantage seek to leverage that advantage into personal gain. Some do it, by providing a service or good to make a living, others use politics to take from those that produce. We see this empirically proven, by politicians who have never produced a thing, but regulation… yet are millionaires. This is obvious yet overlooked. We are angry at at politicians for it but we are so mesmerized by politics we fail to see it.
Healthcare is one aspect of the total politicization of human existence. Sophist assumptions are made by politicians daily. Some include, but are not limited to… everyone must be covered, that government interference in the market would yield positive results, that rent seeking on the part of insurance agencies is a benefit, that the only way to stop moral hazard is to create incentives to moral hazard, the list goes on and on. These are all spurious arguments by politicians put forth as logical and echoed by the unbiased media.
Healthcare is an avenue for the Elite to get politics into the most intimate areas of our lives. When government, a fundamentally political institution, is the primary decision maker in our healthcare choices, then, by definition, our healthcare will be decided by political favor. When this is the case, it is those people who have political connections, that get the benefit, and those who have no political power, subsidize the gain the others receive. The freedom of the market is an impediment to this outcome and so is characterized as a problem.
The US Constitution has been politicized to an amazing degree. This is clearly shown, by the violent fights those people who believe in the politicization of everything, put into vilifying appointees to it. Everyone understands that the definition of the Constitution depends on who is on the Court instead of what it was supposed to mean. The split decisions that come from that august body are further evidence of this. The argument that the Constitution is a living breathing document, shows how strongly politicians feel about changing the Constitution, which was originally a non political structural document, into a political one.
Regulation is another example of the politicization of everything. Regulation only goes up, never down, (unless it benefits some politically favored group). It is never winnowed of old, unneeded, incompetent, burdensome or blatantly political rules. It is only expanded to give hard working bureaucrats more work. The role of regulation is supposedly to fix market failures but, as a matter of fact, they only serve to damage the interests of the people at large, and further warp markets creating more market failures, while delivering profits to those few who are politically connected. Regulation protects companies and individuals, who would rather not face market competition, from having to improve their product, service or actions.
These are by no means the sum total examples of the politicization of everything but space limits us. The logic of collective action is the primary force at work here. Those who get the goods from the politicization of everything, unabashedly protect their interests, while those who pay the price, are vilified as selfish, if they try to defend their right not to be coerced by government to subsidize the politically favored. This leads to the lowering of the national wealth, increasing political faction, a diminishing standard of living for the masses, structural inefficiencies in the market, and most perniciously, the incentive to become politically favored, instead of providing the best good or service to capture a larger part of the market. The negative consequences are cumulative. As they accumulate our comfort and security are consumed. But our loss is a gain for those who are politically favored.
Is this a profitable and benign state of affairs or a pernicious and evil one? Will it lead to an improvement in the lot of Mankind or a diminishing standard of living? And so, should it be allowed to continue?
Sincerely,
John Pepin
