A very ill wind

A reader commented on the post about NYC's trans-fat ban that it was OK with him because taxpayers foot the bill for poor people who eat junk food and have health problems.

People down through history have noted that even very bad things can have some good side effects. Sayings like "it's an ill wind that blows no good" and "every dark cloud has a silver lining" express this observation.

I have often thought that the good unintended consequence of evil things like the war on tobacco and now trans-fats and junk food in general will be the collapse of the welfare state. You see the longer people live the more health care costs they rack up. A middle-aged man dying of lung cancer in his 50's will cost the taxpayers much less than an old person dying of old age related causes in his 80's.

I know that will be hard for a lot of people to believe, but it is absolutely true. When you figure in the cost of social security and medical care for a person living into his 80's the amount dwarfs the amount needed to provide medical care for a cancer patient or diabetic who clocks out young.

As things stand now within about 35-40 years the costs of social security and medicare will consume the entire federal budget. There won't be one dime left over for defense, law enforcement, parks, libraries, education, salaries of government workers or any other propose.

In order to fund the care of the old folks the bottom tax rate will have to be jacked up to something like 80-85%. Let me be clear about this. I'm not talking about the top rate charged to the "rich" but the bottom rate charged to the working stiffs.

The people will not put up with this. They will just stop paying. The whole social security ponzi scheme will collapse like the house of cards that it is.

It is for this reason that I have maintained that the most subversive, anti-government act that a person can commit is to stop smoking, lay off the Big Macs and get in shape. If massive numbers of people start living decades longer the cost to government will skyrocket much quicker than the current projections and bring the system down in 10-15 years instead of 35 or so.

Of course none of this addresses the issue of simple human freedom. If a restaurant owner wishes to serve food loaded with trans-fats, sugar or any other substance frowned upon by the health-Nazis and if customers freely choose to eat such food it is nobodies damn business - certainly not the government's. OR, if a bar or restaurant owner wishes to serve the niche market of people who wish to smoke while they eat it should not be anybody else's damn business either.

But the government isn't content to allow people to live their lives as they please, assume the risks associated with their choices and bear the consequences of those actions. The State, or rather the totalitarian leftists who are attracted to careers in the government, first assume the costs of people's unwise decisions and then criminalize those decisions, using the costs which it has voluntarily assumed as justification.

My answer to that is to stop government from underwriting people's stupidity. Do not take one penny of taxpayer money to pay the costs of someone's health care and allow insurance companies to charge people based on the true risk they assume in insuring them. That means that smokers or overweight people pay more for insurance or do without. And if they get sick then let them pay the costs out of their own pocket or seek a charity hospital funded by private donations.