Published: August 26, 2009 09:52 am      

LION AND THE LAMB: You have a right to healthcare

Never in my lifetime have I heard so much criticism of capitalism. It would seem that our current deep recession has stirred up a great deal of needed discussion about what went wrong and how it could be fixed.

For many people, capitalism is a religion. Its most recent high priest was Ronald Reagan. He it was who, in his first inaugural address, shouted the memorable line that government was not the answer to our problems, "government IS the problem."

Reagan was a popular president, good natured and folksy, an actor who lived in a perpetual bubble of cheerfulness. He convinced many people with his unfailing assertions that capitalism was our only solution to his day's  problems. His mantra was "the magic of the marketplace." In this God was to be our trust, and all would be well. Let us do away with government interference with our religion. Let us do away with regulation, and let the market do its job. All will then be well, and we will be like a city on a hill in this morning in America.

Reagan was successful. Regulations were abandoned. In the last 27 years much of the New Deal was erased. And now we have today's sad state in America. As a result, many voices are being raised to do away with capitalism. It is a false religion, and it will not save us.

But what will it take to replace it?

Communism is dead. The "dictatorship of  the proletariat" seemed, at least in the Soviet Union, to be merely the dictatorship of the dictator.

Socialism is often equated with Communism, and Socialism does not seem to have much message any more, although many Latin American countries are becoming so progressive that they seem to be moving leftward into Socialism.  

And it is true, Socialism is widespread in today's America. We have schools and fire departments and police and a post office, all based on the notion that we're all in this together, and that we prosper when we exercise a concern for one another.

I recently gave a check in support of a ministerial education fund. I do not expect to benefit from that gift, but I remember that an uncle paid for my college education and two thirds of my graduate studies in seminary. It was my Uncle Sam, and I benefitted from the so-called GI Bill of Rights. I am grateful for my education and believe it is a duty and a privilege to offer help to others in their educational quest.

And I hope to see the day when not only pre-school and grade school and high school are paid for by taxpayers. I hope to see the day when college and graduate school are free for all also.

Now we are engaged  in a great argument (not much of a debate!) about health care. On one side are the purists, the capitalists, who insist that government has no right to guarantee health care for everyone. Let us all accept our personal responsibility. To watch our diets. To quit smoking. And to pay the doctor when we get sick. And not expect some federal agency to bring medication and care to us if and when we develop diabetes or lung cancer or anything else. No, say the nay-sayers, we ought to be on our own, and not ask our neighbor to provide us with medicare or medicaid or socialized medicine.

Is there a future for capitalism?

I think we ought to have a Both-And system. Both Capitalism with private property and personal responsibility, and Socialism with government assuming responsibilities that we cannot assume privately.

You have a right, I believe, to ownership of your own home, your own car, your own toothbrush.

And, I firmly believe, you have a right to help from government when you are in need.

You have a right to health care.