Personal Choice (or, Why it’s your fault)
One of the great things about being an American citizen is that I get to do (almost) whatever I want for fun. Assuming I do not hurt anyone in the process, I get a lot of leeway to enjoy the world around me. In some cases, that activity might be dangerous, and if so I might get hurt.
If I engage in rock climbing, skiing, skydiving, other any other extreme sport, I do not expect recompense if accidents happen. Sure, my health care coverage MIGHT cover it, but not necessarily. Was it an ‘accident’ that you fell off the mountain as your were climbing it? Most insurance companies will ask you if you have (or ever will) skydive. And if so, they tend to not cover you. Why? How many people die skydiving every year compared to the number of people who die driving every day? That discussion is for another time. My point here is that people need to own up to their personal choices. I am not going to say you should not smoke or do drugs, but I am saying that you should be responsible for any negative outcomes that arise due to your choices.
It’s called risk assessment, and I learned it back in the military. Before every operation you analyze what the good of the operation is compared to the potential (probability and severity) hazards of the operation. If the hazards outweigh the benefits, you might want to re-consider the operation. When you make a personal choice to do something (that everyone who is paying attention to the world going by knows) and you consciously choose to do it, that fine. But when something bad happens, don’t expect me or my tax dollars to bail you out. That’s the problem with today’s world. People expect the government to bail them out. Where is that in the constitution? A wise comedian once said “Life sucks, get a f’ing helmet”
There are a bunch of people who live in South Carolina who get a brand new house (million dollar house) on the Atlantic coast for free every few years. Great for them, right? Wrong, US tax dollars pay for that. See, no insurance company sells hurricane insurance to someone who lives in a location that gets slammed every few years. The government (because we feel sorry for these people who lost their home) give money for them to build a brand new home, on the beach, right next to where the old one was. They know the dangers of living there, but what the heck. If my house gets smashed, I get a new one for free.
Smoking – If you smoke and have not figured out that it is bad for you, it is because you choose to defy the information that is plastered everywhere, it’s even on the box ‘This crap will kill you!’. Heck, even cigarette companies, the ones who sell you those death sticks are telling you its bad and here is what you can do to quit. We all know its bad for us, but many of us still do it? Why? It feels good, it relaxes us. It’s a personal risk assessment, just like every other risky behavior. If you want to shorten your life by a few minutes and light up a smoke, go ahead. But don’t expect your insurance company to pay for your lung cancer treatment.
Motorcycle without helmet – We have a helmet law here in Michigan, but many states do not. If you want the wind to blow in your hair, that’s fine. But when you get into an accident and your brain get scrambled, don’t expect me to feel sorry for you in your coma.
Getting out of the way of a hurricane – So the national hurricane center is getting better at predicting where hurricane hits. Local officials sometimes want to make sure people are safe and they call for mandatory evacuation. Ok, so that means it going to be really bad, so you had better get out. If you choose to ‘wait it out’ (some do not have the means, which is sad, but I am referring to people that have the means who deliberately say they are going to ride it out) then when the storm comes and floats your house away, I think you should have to swim to safety. You had the opportunity, we told you it was going to be bad and you chose not to heed the warnings. Your fault. No sympathy from me.
Drugs – They are bad for you, are you not paying attention to the Partnership for a Drug Free America? Haven’t you noticed the thousands who get hooked on nasty stuff and their lives are destroyed? It obviously is dangerous and you need to take responsibility. Once your hooked, that chemical dependency is hard to break, I understand. But you were not an addict that first time, were you?
Fast food – Yikes, this one is tough because lots of people do it and still don’t understand that it is bad for you. The government is trying to tell people that fast food is bad, but their budget is a very small percentage of the advertising budget of the food companies. If you have not seen it, you must watch Supersize Me. It is a great documentary that exposes the truly sad nature of fast food and what it is doing to American society. If you choose to eat incredibly unhealthy food, you should sign a waiver saying taxpayer money should not pay for it.