"Dependence" Has Another Word...

This is a short, but valuable piece on the concept of "rights", specifically, the rights enshrined in the Constitution, as opposed to the "right" to health care that Obama talked about in the second debate. It reminded me of the oft-quoted P.J. O'Rourke, when he addressed this same subject (among others ) during the Clinton administration:

Health care is too expensive, so the Clinton administration is putting a high-powered corporate lawyer in charge of making it cheaper. (This is what I always do when I want to spend less money -- hire a lawyer from Yale.) If you think health care is expensive now, wait until you see what it costs when it's free.

The "cost" of things like "free" health care can't just be measured in monetary terms, however. In case you'd rather not click though to the original article that I was writing about, though you should, here's the kicker:

“Free” health-care costs us something precious, and no less precious for being invisible. Because there’s a word for someone who has their food, housing and care provided for them… for people who owe their existence to someone else.

And that word is “slaves.”