People have a right to smoke. But, on every pack of cigarettes is printed, by law, a warning that use of that product will be harmful or fatal to the user. The practice of government's warning people against certain products or activities is a relatively recent one in our society. Religion has always had the job, but now the government has taken it over.
Most people who smoke already know that smoking is dangerous to their health. Even young people, at whom the warning is supposedly aimed, usually have a basic knowledge of what it can do to them but because they are young, foolish or just plain don't care, they go ahead anyway. Addiction soon follows and then there is no choice. So, why do they put the warning there if no one is taking the warning? Government warnings are not given to protect the consumer, but the producer. Ostensibly the government cares about people's health, but realistically it's their pocket book that motivates them to show warnings that they hope will be ignored. If they have warned a person of the danger, and that person chooses to partake of the dangerous substance anyway, the producer cannot be held responsible or liable in case the user becomes ill or dies. Also, the government has an interest in making sure that the producer stays in business because the producer pays heavy taxes on dangerous products.
So, we are baited, warned, trapped, fleeced and left to ourselves. Is it any wonder then, that the government now chooses to make health care mandatory? Just as you cannot drive a car legally without insurance, in order to 'protect' everyone against the uninsured driver, so now everyone will be forced to have insurance to 'protect' everyone against the people who choose to use harmful substances and cannot pay for the 'treatment' needed. Government wins again. First, they have their finger in the production pie, making big bucks by taxing those 'dangerous' products, next they have a finger in the warning pie by slapping huge fines on companies whose dangerous products do not comply, next they have a finger in the medical pie by forcing everyone to pay for the effects of the use of the products. This vicious cycle, in one form or another, has been a common practice among mobs, gangsters and corrupt governments since the beginning of man.
You might be asking yourself, why, if this has been going on forever, should I start complaining about it now? The short answer is that I am not really complaining. People have a right to do what they like with their own body. Governments have a right to do whatever the people allow them to do. At this point in history, given our background, we should already be fighting a civil war to win back our lost freedoms. The only reason we are not is because we took the bait in the first place. Once you take poisoned bait it's no use fighting the trap. From the moment government was allowed to become a 'charitable institution' and started paying for the 'general welfare' with money that was extracted by force from 'everyone', we, as a country, had taken the poisoned bait. In that moment, the responsibility for our lives, liberty and pursuit of happiness shifted, if only slightly, from the shoulders of the individual to the shoulders of the government. This was the stated goal of some, but certainly not the original goal of those who founded the plan for this country.
Today it is seen as a virtue for a government to 'care for' it's citizens. The problem lies in the basic fact that it simply is not their responsibility and they know it. They know that they cannot 'take care' of everyone. Realistically, how could they feed, clothe, house, and nurture everyone? Why would we want them to? Yet this has been the direction governments have taken since the beginning. And, not only have they attempted, by force, to extract enough money from everyone through taxes to pay for everyone's needs, but, they have also engaged in the practice of causing the damage for which they have extracted payment in advance. There is only one way to stop the cycle of abuse and it isn't to rise up against the government, start a civil war, or complain loudly to a congressman. The only way to end this insanity is to stop taking the poisoned government handout bait. That sounds easy, but there is a hitch. Not only is the bait poisoned, but it is also addictive. Many of our parents were addicts before us, making the choice almost impossible. So you see, it would do no good to complain
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