| | Above Objectivists comments are excellent. I always love to see how well imbued in the principles of Objectivism these people are!
Mrs. Pickwick: From "The Objectivist Newsletter" (January, 1963): Once, when Barbara Branden (an early collaborator of Ayn Rand) was asked by a student: "What will happen to the poor in an Objectivist society?" - she answered: "If you want to help them, you will not be stopped." This is the essence of the whole issue, whether we speak of poor people, sick people or disabled people. In an Objectivist society people will, by the essence of the system first and automatically as years go by, LEARN to be responsible for what they do. They will be responsible for themselves, for their children and for those they love. How? It is quite possible - and has, of course, often happened - that a disabled person looses, in the course of his life, his parents or family members that took care of him. But much, much earlier, Objectivism will have taken the necessary steps to cover these unavoidable eventualities. Again: how? In an Objectivist society (I wrote on the subject in a book of mine which was published chapterwise in Rebirth of Reason (see "Ayn Rand, I and the Universe")) insurance companies will have a much bigger saying that today. Why? Because they are - quite separate from any possible charitable institution - since they were first created (quite some time ago already) responsible for possible damages (transport, house, accidents, etc.) as long as you sign a contract with them. Businessmen do this continuously and we all do so as well (as a matter of fact, insurance people are constantly on our neck to expand a given contract, sign a new one for a new risk, etc. etc.). So, we can just as well sign one for disability (Why, Marlene Dietrich even signed one to insure her fabulous legs and I could mention dozens of similar cases!). So, since in an Objectivist society parents will be responsible for themselves and their life and all that this implies, they will always have a chance to contract an insurance for a possible disability of the children... or of themselves. You see, in an Objectivist society ALL creative possibilities are open, signify money and profit for the company involved and, since all will operate in an environment of personal freedom, you will be even able to change your insurance company if you're not satisfied with the one with which you signed your original contract (and not as today in Europe and other areas, where the State simply takes away part of your money to cover things like Medicare, etc. that most of the time don't work so that you have to spend more extra money to obtain the required medical services from private doctors and hospital institutions!). What will NOT be allowed, NOT because there will be a specific law but because the whole system makes such a possibility impossible, is for loafers to live at the expense of peaceful, productive citizens. So, if there's by chance a drug addict getting sick, he will have to face the outcome all by himself. And should he hurt somebody else, well, he will be punished in accordance with the principal MORAL axiom of Objectivism: Nobody, and I mean NOBODY, has a right to INITIATE an act of violence against another person or persons. SELF-RESPONSIBILITY is the automatic outcome of the Objectivist society, and not, as happens in all the socialist societies of all type, kind and color that populate the world, living from what others produce!
(Edited by Manfred F. Schieder on 12/09, 8:25am)
|
|
