Today, the Wall Street Journal published a letter I wrote to the editor opposing mandatory health insurance. This solution would burden the poor beyond their means, and it would deny the principle of subsidiarity by sacrificing family economic decisions to the priorities of federal legislators. Here is the text of the letter:
Read more on Forced Purchases of Health Care Will Crush Many…
Amongst the health care debate Ray Nothstine offers a good analysis of Verterans Health Care. Nothstine brings a good argument to light for those to consider who are in support of reforming health care. Many supporters of reforming health care look to the health care provided by the Veterans Administration (VA); however as Nothstine is able to demonstrate, the VA health care system is far from perfect. Nothstine also provides real life situations that demonstrate the flaws of the health care system managed by the VA.
Read more on Acton Commentary: Veterans First on Health Care…
In a time of changes and reform in institutions one wonders if reform is truly necessary. Oskari Juurikkala addresses this lingering thought and answers that, yes, reform is truly necessary but it needs to be rooted in true good and our faith in God. Juurikkala states:
Today Dr. Donald Condit looks at a new federal proposal called the Patients’ Choice Act, which promises more freedom in choosing health care insurance. “The PCA will enhance patient and family ability to afford health care insurance and incentivize healthier lifestyles,” Condit writes. “In addition, it would surpass other options in fulfilling our social responsibility to the poor and vulnerable.”
Read more on Acton Commentary: “Patients’ Choice Act — A Better Prescription”…
The Detroit News says the General Motors bankruptcy filing “is a hammer blow for a state that was already on its knees.” In an editorial, the paper calls for an “emergency response” from government and an entirely new orientation to attracting businesses and jobs to the state:
Those who promoted the War on Poverty and other grand plans to end poverty, writes Hunter Baker, “had no inkling that these good-hearted strategies would lead to enduring cycles of poverty and family disintegration that threatened to consume entire generations. Wishing for good outcomes resulted in disaster.”
“When designing rules for a game, one must take into account the moral character of the players,” Oskari Juurikkala reminds us in today’s Acton Commentary. “But there needs to be adequate variation: general laws designed for crooks will not produce any saints.”
Read more on Acton Commentary: Motivation and Regulation in Financial Markets…
Economists and policy experts are forever coming up with new solutions for the seemingly intractable problem of African poverty. But Anthony Bradley points out that any reform program “must require certain moral values to truly flourish; in virtue’s absence the same system can serve to create new moral dilemmas.”
Read more on Acton Commentary: The Virtuous Path to African Development…
Once again, sociologists and journalists are predicting the demise of Christianity as a major influence in the public life of America. Hunter Baker pokes holes in that theory, and observes that these persistent predictions are coming from “those anxious for it to occur.”
Read more on Acton Commentary: End Times for Christian America?…
Economists and business schools have, in recent decades, rightfully praised entrepreneurs for their ability to create wealth and transform entire industries. But there’s more to it than that, says Sam Gregg in his commentary. “If taxes are high, property-rights unprotected, and corruption the norm, then the environment embodies major deterrents to wealth-generating entrepreneurship,” he writes. “Why would people risk being entrepreneurial when they can’t assume their ideas won’t be stolen or their profits arbitrarily confiscated?”
Read more on Acton Commentary: Entrepreneurship isn’t enough…
