I wish to warmly welcome these intrepid individuals clinging to the notion of “you make your bed, now sleep in it” solidly into the 21st century. But before I do that, I feel like I should welcome you into the 20th century. I do this, because it was the late 19th century that did away with personal responsibility with actuarial sciences. Or let me say this more clearly: the State did not kill personal responsibility, insurance did.

I think I understand the impulse, and feel free to tell me if I get it wrong: “personal responsibility” forces the moral imperative that actions have consequences, and we make better choices when we pay for our mistakes. This idea, while satisfying to the soul, is patently false. 150 years ago we began seeing the ENORMOUS efficiency gains brought about by risk assessment and insurance. Our society is where it is today because of it. To reverse this now, after a century and a half, would be cutting off our face to spite our nose. There would be nothing left.

We do not live on the Oregon Trail, friends. We all pay into systems based on systematic risk of us costing the system. You don’t drive down the street, bump another car, or a kid, and pay tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars for your lack of caution. You pay your insurance premium, your deductible, and the actuary reassess your risk, and you pay a new rate, or you are excused from the system (when your risk has become too great).

As for the rest of your article about congress having balls? Bread and circus. It was a show for angry Americans to see congress in action. What else could have been done? America didn’t want a reasoned response. It wanted heads to roll. And who believes Obama was really “choking on his own anger” as he said. He didn’t care. But they had to pretend, because the American people were so upset.

I close this with a warning that I hate the little comment box, I have not edited anything I’ve written, and am much too lazy to paste it into Word for editing. Hope it makes some sense, but if it doesn’t, allow me to concisely recap: You don’t understand the economy.

I hope this was clear.

Hope you are well,
Chuckles