Today is the last full day of Bush’s tenure as President of the United States of America. Tomorrow Obama will take the oath and become the 44th President and the 1st black President. No matter what kind of politics you support or believe, Obama’s becoming president will usher in a new era of politics and hopefully improve our tattered image abroad.
To be quite honest, I really don’t agree with most of what Obama has to say other than that we need change. His change, however, is not what I think we need. We do not need more socialist institutions that will do nothing but put more of the private sectors in the hands of an incompetent government. I’m not at all saying that the American government is incompetent at everything, I am simply suggesting that governments in general have no business in certain aspects of society because they are simply incapable of performing the tasks required of those parts.
An example would be the national health care system. Sure, I understand entirely the principle idea of a federal health care system that would allow those with less means to receive health care on the tab of the government. The problem is that the “tab of the government” is really the taxes paid by those with more means. You could even go so far as to say that the government in this situation is acting like some sort of Robin Hood: take from those with more income and give to those with less. That is not simply not right.
The other problem a national health care system would face is inefficiency. Take, for example, the Canadian health care system. I have heard nothing but complaints about how slow and inefficient it is at dealing with individual’s health problems. Every single Canadian I know has had nothing but vile things to say about it when asked.
Oh well, enough of the federal health care system. My point is that the change that Obama has promised us is misguided and generally unwelcome. Since, however, at the point I do not have much of a choice, I am just going to sit back and watch to see what happens in the next four years.
