ARCHIVE: The Highest Cost Is Often Exacted at the Poles

*** This entry was originally posted to LiveJournal April 30, 2010 ***


A coal mine with a history of safety violations explodes . . . 29 people die.
Another coal mine with its own history of safety violations suffers a collapse of the very roof that was cited as inadequate . . . 2 people die.
An off-shore oil rig that lacked state of the art safety measures, leased by a company with a history of safety violations, explodes and sinks . . . 11 people die, and an oil slick of colossal proportions threatens wildlife, ecosystems, and fisheries.

That's just this month.

Looking outward in time and subject, there are other problems.

Banks engaged in unchecked, wildly risky investments, precipitating the sharpest economic downturn since the Great Depression--the ripples of which are still felt worldwide.

According to the GAO, health care spending doubled between 1990 and 2000, and is projected to double again between 2000 and 2010. That's the start of an exponential increase. If that trend continues, anybody want to see the numbers for 2050?
Meanwhile, an insurance company stands accused of specifically targeting women with breast cancer for policy cancellation.

Still think all government regulation is bad?

Still think we don't need a new energy policy that seriously moves us toward non-fossil sources?

Still think we don't need a new way to put some backstops on the financial industry?

Still think we don't need to control health care costs while increasing access to care?

If so, that's your prerogative. Just remember that there is a human cost to all that freedom from governmental regulation you crave. Tell the families of those who have died in unsafe working environments how much you want government to leave you alone. Tell those who have lost their livelihoods to environmental disaster. Tell those who have lost their jobs. Tell those who have lost their homes, either to the economic downturn or to financial ruin brought on by health care costs. Tell those who've been dropped from their health care coverage just when they needed it most, either because they lost their jobs or because their insurance companies dropped them for having the audacity to get sick.

Look, I'm a capitalist, individual liberty democrat--small "d," as in advocate of democracy--too. I just think that instead of screaming at each other over the antipodes of full socialism and full laissez-faire, we'd be better served by finding the balance--putting some limitation on everyone's liberty in order to achieve the greatest freedom for the greatest number of us. That's what it's about, kids. John Locke knew this three hundred years ago, and if you REALLY want to get at what would have been informing the opinions of the Founders, read your Locke and the other Enlightenment political philosophers.