Propagandists for the Obama regime keep telling people that the government is their friend because it gives them free things. The New York Times recently opined that Obamacare is good because it will give some people free insurance. Don Boudreaux attacks that bit of lunacy in the letter below.
4 November 2013
Editor, The New York Times
620 Eighth Avenue
New York, NY 10018
Dear Editor:
Your headline today reads “Under Health Care Act, Millions Eligible for Free Policies.”
More accurate wording would be “Under Health Care Act, Millions Eligible to Free Ride at Other People’s Expense.” That the people actually paying for all this “free” health insurance are faceless does not make them illusory – only invisible. And being invisible, the people footing the bill are ignored by Pres. Obama and other politicians preening publicly over their faux-generosity in spending other people’s money to bribe voters with promises of “free” health insurance.
The ethics of this situation are abominable, and the economics are no better. Hippopotamuses will fly before reams of rococo regulations, taxes, and sanctions will prevent recipients of “free” policies from over-consuming and inefficiently using health-care resources – and, hence, from driving health-care costs to astronomical heights or health-care availability to dangerous lows.
Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux
Professor of Economics
