<<<Every other industrialized country on the planet recognizes this and gives primacy to the latter. In such situations health care ceases to be a commodity and becomes a social service, like education. How scary is that!>>>
One of our great exports were ideas expressed in the Decaration of Independence. That was written in 1776. Time moves on. Conditions change. After the Great Depression of 1939 FDR proposed a Second Bill of Rights urging a new kind of Declaration of Independence:
"In our day these economic truths have become accepted as self-evident. We have accepted, so to speak, a second Bill of Rights under which a new basis of security and prosperity can be established for all -- regardless of station, race, or creed."
"In principle, Americans on both left and right are committed to "equal opportunity." But a moment's reflection should be enough to show that in a free society, equal opportunity is elusive. Because some people have more wealth than others, some children will have more and better opportunities. Those who think they are committed to "equal opportunity" are thus actually in favor of "decent opportunity," a more modest and practical aspiration. Achieving decent opportunities for all was one of Roosevelt's central commitments.
The right to good education is the most obvious example. By elevating a good education to the status of a right, Roosevelt meant to emphasize several points: that in many domains, education is indispensable to decent prospects in life; that it is a basic safeguard of individual security; that those who are well-educated are less likely to fall, and, if they do, are more likely to be able to pick themselves up; and that education is necessary for citizenship itself. It is noteworthy that of all the rights listed in FDR's Second Bill, the right to education is by far the most frequently included in the constitutions of the states. Forty-nine of the 50 give it some constitutional recognition (Iowa is the only holdout) .............
......Opportunity, if it bears fruit, produces security. But some aspects of the Second Bill aim at security directly, by creating a floor below which human lives are not permitted to fall. In Roosevelt's words, "Government has a final responsibility for the well-being of its citizenship. If private co-operative endeavor fails to provide work for willing hands and relief for the unfortunate, those suffering hardship from no fault of their own have a right to call upon the Government for aid; and a government worthy of its name must make fitting response." Thus, certain aspects of the Second Bill protect freedom from desperate conditions -- a form of liberty, not equality.
Roosevelt sought a kind of national insurance program that would help people suffering from the inevitable accidents and catastrophes of life. Roosevelt, himself a victim of polio, believed that each of us is vulnerable to dangers that cannot be wholly prevented. Insofar as the Second Bill would ensure food, clothing, shelter, and health care for all, it would insure against the worst of those dangers.
Evidently Roosevelt came to believe that rights are instruments, or tools, designed to protect human interests. The more fundamental the interests, the more important the instruments. Nor is it unfamiliar or odd to think of rights in this way. Freedom of speech should be understood in these terms, as an effort to protect a wide range of human values. The Second Bill can be analyzed similarly. It identifies a range of fundamental human interests and promises to protect them......."" |
