The Mysterious Egalitarian Impulse

Donald Berwick, Obama's pick to head Medicare, is a big fan of the British National Health Service, that disastrous socialized medicine program turning a once-great nation into a Soviet hospital ward. It gets worse. He's quoted in a recent WSJ editorial as having had this to say:

[A]ny health-care funding plan that is just, equitable, civilized and humane must — must — redistribute wealth from the richer among us to the poorer and less fortunate.

Probably more evil statements than this have emanated from the Administration in the past 18 months — the worst of them no doubt by Cass Sunstein. But this one will do. No wonder Obama made Berwick a recess appointment to avoid any Senate debate about his views.

With all the history and philosophy I've studied over the past forty years, it still astounds me how a human being can so blithely ignore the property rights of innocent citizens. I mean, isn't that the sort of idea Americans are supposed to be fed with mother's milk? It's equally amazing how someone could fail to grasp the obvious contradiction in any form of coerced charity. Maybe I should've studied less of those subjects and more psychology, because this I truly do not understand.

Maybe it's just as someone once said: "anyone who wishes to deny men the right to property, simply wishes to make property of men."

And I can't think of anything more evil — or more puzzling — than that.