It's interesting that you bring up birth control, because the people who are supporting unrestrained capitalism in the U.S. are the same people who are funding abstinence-only education, supporting pharmacists' right to limit access to birth control options, and fighting for extreme abortion bans. But I digress.
I want people to take responsibility for their choices. I also want to help them make better ones in the future, and help their kids make better ones. To me, that's where good social programs come in. They should support adults who need to go back and get a better education to make them employable. They should help with childcare for those folks who made the choice, possibly when times were better, and are now stuck with it. Since getting ill is not a choice, medical care should not be one of the things that people are left to take individual financial responsibility for.
I really dislike the rhetoric of choice, actually. It's often a way for people to absolve themselves of social responsibility for needed changes. I don't believe in making people and their children suffer endlessly for past bad choices or downturns in their fortunes. And I'd rather pay for a few leeches than NOT help someone who really needed it and could have improved their lives with it.
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Date: 2006-11-02 05:45 pm (UTC)I want people to take responsibility for their choices. I also want to help them make better ones in the future, and help their kids make better ones. To me, that's where good social programs come in. They should support adults who need to go back and get a better education to make them employable. They should help with childcare for those folks who made the choice, possibly when times were better, and are now stuck with it. Since getting ill is not a choice, medical care should not be one of the things that people are left to take individual financial responsibility for.
I really dislike the rhetoric of choice, actually. It's often a way for people to absolve themselves of social responsibility for needed changes. I don't believe in making people and their children suffer endlessly for past bad choices or downturns in their fortunes. And I'd rather pay for a few leeches than NOT help someone who really needed it and could have improved their lives with it.