Catholic and Enjoying It!
The libertarian lie in response to this is that a state social safety net that guarantees poor children the health care they need is somehow crippling to the ability of the libertarian to show “charity”. The core lie is that “my” money is being taken “at gunpoint” for “charity” and that the world is a much better place when desperate parent have to busk on the internet in the hope that the libertarian is in a mood to kick five bucks into a GoFundMe to stave off the choice between a little girl dying of an expensive disease or the family living under an overpass.
But the reality is this: health care is not charity. That kid has a *right* to health care as a matter of justice, not charity, just as she has a right to life. And justice *is* a matter for the state. It is the state’s entire job to secure justice. Libertarian “charity” is largely a matter of narcissism. What matters to the Libertarian who makes the argument above is not the child with the medical issue or the good of the family. What matter is that the Libertarian get the credit and have the Good Feels for throwing his dime in the GoFundMe. The kid can die for all he cares–especially if the state takes his money in taxes to help save the kid.
But, in fact, the kid has a right to treatment in simple justice and the state has the duty to ensure that justice–and should therefore have the power to enforce that justice with a healthcare system that helps that little girl live and flourish in health.
The core problem with Libertarianism and the central lie it enshrines is the proposition that man was made for the law–specifically property law–and not the law for man. The libertarian prioritizes the conditional right to property over the absolute right to life. That’s why Libertarianized conservatives whoop with glee and shout “Let him die!” rather than them have to have a buck taken out of their paycheck:
This, by the way, points to one of the rare moments where Donald Trump demonstrated more humanity and common sense in the primary debates than doctrinaire libertarians like Cruz. At one point, Trump remarked that if a homeless person is sick he wouldn’t just let him die in the street and that he should have access to health care. Cruz and Rubio ganged up him and hammered him with only one question: “Who’s gonna pay for that?” It was the only thing that mattered. Not “How can we save human life?” but only “The state should have no involvement in securing human life and health for its citizens if it costs me anything.”
Yeah. It obviously should, because health care is not charity any more than birth is. Health care is simple justice.
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