I recently read a headline on Yahoo or somewhere about an increase in vehicle registrations to cover the increased costs of maintaining state parks, and I thought, how is that right?
I don't use state parks, yet I should be expected to pay more when I register my vehicle each year? How is that fair? That's the same as my health insurance premiums going up to cover the increased costs for people who are too stupid to know when to stop eating! (I'm 6' tall and around 180 pounds, height and weight proportionate, just so you know.)
I'm all for user fees. You want to use it, you pay to use it, that's not difficult to understand.
But making everyone pay to cover the increased costs of transporting your big rear end when you need to go somewhere is beyond comprehension.
Or is it? (Yeah, that's right, I'm taking a 180 here.)
The public, in general, covers the costs for a lot of people, for things they never use, such as bridges to nowhere and multi-million dollar airports in Alaskan villages of 200 people...it happens all the time.
Need another example? What about $100,000 toilet facilities at the high-elevation end of trails in National Forests, places where maybe 50 people each year will actually arrive to use them? (There's an entire forest out there! You can't find a tree?)
Maybe Governor Sanford used one while hiking the Appalachian Trail...
What about simply covering the medical care for the indigent?
I'm still all for users fees, but sometimes there's things we can't get around using, such as surgery and post-op care for appendicitis. Are we to say that if you can't pay up front, you are denied care and you die?
Of course not, unless we really want Death Panels to make decisions for us.
Yes, many people become obese due to factors they can not control. On the flip side, many people become obese from factors they really can control, but chose not to, such as over eating or eating too much of the wrong foods, or eating high-calorie fast foods all the time and deliberately not exercising.
So are we to deny them care when they need it if they cannot pay for it?
I think that would be as wrong as their over eating and not exercising.
But medical equipment such as ambulances with heavier springs and gurneys that are wider and can support 2,000 pounds and wheelchairs that are twice as wide as the standard size, those things cost a lot of money. Should companies be forced to absorb those costs?
No. They are in business to make a profit, not just to serve the community.
But is charging a particular person more for the same services really right?
I'm not so sure it is.
Shouldn't this be a cost the general public as a whole covers?
In an ideal world everyone would watch what they eat and would exercise and be in great shape, but we don't live in an ideal world.
We live here, where things aren't always fair, and in many cases all we can do is suck it up.
Or sue because we feel we are being discriminated against...
Ah, yes, the courts. Just one more thing everyone pays for but most never use...
Hybrid Mode
