John,

Reading your blog makes me happy , nice work!

-Drew

Very interesting perspective and argument, John!
It is documented that the original draft of the Declaration of Independence stated Americans' unalienable rights as:

"life, liberty, and property"

but the 'property' was removed and changed to 'the pursuit of happiness' based on the framers' sentiments that not all Americans would be able to afford property (land or possessions) considering the fact that there would always be some level of debt or poverty in any realistic society. From my understanding, they changed this verbiage also because they did not want the Declaration to obligate the government to provide the poor with any property or possessions, as self-improvement and capitalistic imperialism were highly regarded values in the new democratic republic.

Although I agree that a sick or a hungry person has very little chance of being truly happy, it almost seems to me that the framers may have 'opted out' of holding the government responsible for providing citizens happiness, as they promise merely the opportunity for the 'pursuit' of happiness. Yet another way our society rewards the gifted and wealthy and promotes the survival of the fittest allowing the dispartiy between rich and poor to continually grow...

Nice. Thanks for that, Jason.

You said "...they promise merely the opportunity for the 'pursuit' of happiness..."

I don't think that changes or argues against anything I said. In fact, that's exactly my point...the promise of the opportunity is what didn't exist in the first place.

Any American citizen can be wiped out by a random disease, such as a Cancer or a brain tumor. And I mean, WIPED OUT. They can lose their job, home, savings...everything. It happens all the time. But it's not just that citizen who's affected but the entire family can be financially ruined. College funds depleted, health insurance, investments and retirements gone.

So not only is one person's ability to pursue happiness ripped away by a random disease, entire families can lose the ability to pursuit it as well.

But if the government (tax payers) actually took care of us medically, the financial ruin wouldn't happen. The children would still have a home, an education, health care,...you know, a bright future where the pursuit of happiness would still be possible. Generations wouldn't be wiped out at a time.

To me, this is clearly stated in the words of our Declaration.

___

NOTE: A recent study by Harvard University researchers found that the average out-of-pocket medical debt for those who filed for bankruptcy was $12,000. The study noted that 68 percent of those who filed for bankruptcy had health insurance. In addition, the study found that 50 percent of all bankruptcy filings were partly the result of medical expenses (14). Every 30 seconds in the United States someone files for bankruptcy in the aftermath of a serious health problem.
The National Coalition
on Health Care

have you ever visited The Cellar? It's a general discussion forum, with a lot of intelligent (and a fair amount of not-so) discussion. You might like it there.

http://cellar.org/