[nfb-talk] blind and wanting to improve things, not get labeled

[Steve Jacobson]

Ryan,

I submit the following with at least some confidence that you understand we're dealing with difficult questions and that you and I have always been able to debate 
while respecting one another.

It is hard to say if you would consider me a liberal, but I don't.  I am definitely left of middle on some issues but right of middle on others.  However, there are 
implications in your message that are consistent with other conservative positions that I simply think are inaccurate.

First, while you are right about the problems with Social Security and medicare and the large bureaucracy, I can only assume that you have never had difficulties that 
some of us have had dealing with private health care providers.  I think that part of the ineptness of government is a matter of perception.  Americans generally 
believe that government should be responsive and that they should be able to have a voice in how it is run.  This is, of course correct.  On the other hand, 
Americans do not believe that we have a voice in anything that is private, because, after all, it is private.  If we are lucky, we make our views known by taking our 
business elsewhere when we have a choice, but we don't always have a choice.  However, even when we don't have a choice, we don't really feel that we have 
any right to complain as we do with the government because, again, it is private.  I submit that conservatives have a double standard because activists use the fact 
that we feel that we have a voice in our government to whip up our anger against that government and keeping our attention off those aspects of the private sector 
that probably deserve just as much of our anger.  This approach amplifies any shortcoming of government while it tends to cover up any shortcomings within the 
private sector.

So is government perfect?  Of course not.  However, I maintain that part of the problem with government programs is not that it is government but because the 
bureaucracy is so large.  I would also submit that many of the same problems exist in large corporations as well.  The lack of a profit insentive in government reduces 
the chance for innovation, but the sensitivity of the private sector to stock prices has the effect of discouraging much thought to long-term planning.  
Long term for many corporations is how do we get next quarter's stock price up.  This isn't true of all private sector entities, of course, and I would guess you would 
even have to admit that some government programs have been successful as well.  However, my point is that the problem of health care and even programs for the 
blind is bigger than those bad guys in government that conservatives keep harping on, and our problems won't be solved by some liberals trying to tax and otherwise 
restrict the innovation that can be achieved through the profit motive that has served us well in the private sector.  Too much power in any sector results in lack of 
responsiveness and waste, whether it is in government or in the private sector.  The reason you don't get answers is because you are asking the wrong questions 
and you are preoccupied with the wrong people, only liberals.

I am willing to bet that most people understand that the private sector is going to generally provide a more efficient means to accomplish a given task.  However, 
most of us accept that a society worth its salt will spread the burdens of certain things out so that individuals are not unduly hindered by events beyond their control.  
Health care falls into this area for many of us.  We need to find a way to make health care more efficient while recognizing that it will cost us something in the form of 
taxes.  It's a little hard for me to take the 
warnings of conservatives seriously about the danger of government telling me which doctors I can see when my health insurance provider already tells me that.  to 
me, it feels very much as though conservatives think it is fine to be told what to do by people who are not accountable to anyone but that it is terrible if we're told 
what to do by the government over which we at least have some control.  It is just as wrong for extreme liberals to assume that nothing good can come from the 
private sector and that all capitalists are suspect.

As John Hein has pointed out, SSI and SSDI just don't fit into any private model very well while some aspects of SSDI could probably be handled through private 
insurance.  For the mostpart, people did get by before those programs.  Blind people who didn't find a means of support were supported by their families or by 
charities.  Some conservatives think that is a fine solution, but I don't think you have to be a liberal not to want us to go back to that hit or miss way of solving 
problems.  At the same time, we do have to take seriously the notion that we need to think about the costs and the benefits of anything that we ask for.  We need to 
look for ways of trying to not force people to remain dependent on any program whether it is part of government or private in origin.  Whether we as an organization 
have been perfect on that or not, I think we do better than average in giving that some thought.  We can't settle the health care question here, but we do make 
attempts to talk through many other issues.  I'm not sure what is to be gained by labeling people and isolating oneself to exchange ideas with people who already 
agree with you, but of course you have that right.

Best regards,

Steve Jacobson

On Thu, 22 Apr 2010 22:43:42 -0600, RyanO wrote:

>Chuck, I don't know you of course, but based on your comments, I'm tempted 
>to think that you don't receive social security or Medicare benefits. I and 
>many of my friends can relate horror story after horror story involving the 
>bureaucracy and ineptness of various government programs. I've asked many 
>liberals in amicable debates why they believe that the government is better 
>able to provide assistance than the private sector. I ask on a historical, 
>efficiency and motivational basis. At the end of the arguments, though many 
>platitudes come across, I've never received a solid answer.


>RyanO



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