Website owner:  James Miller

Social justice



   Let us talk about social justice.  It is an interesting topic.  
   There is an important, fundamental principle of justice.  It is 
   an intuitive, natural law.  What is it?  Well, it is this:  
   Justice demands that a person should not be forced to pay for 
   costs that are due to the immoral, foolish or bad behavior, 
   conduct or actions of other people.  It demands that people who 
   conduct themselves prudently and well should not be forced to 
   pay for the costs incurred by people who conduct themselves in 
   foolish, bad or immoral ways.  Immoral, foolish or bad people 
   should have to pay for the consequences of their own conduct.  
   Some people live by healthy, prudent, intelligent, sensible 
   life habits.  Others follow unhealthy, imprudent, foolish, bad 
   or immoral life habits that incur costs.  What are some 
   examples of bad life habits, bad conduct?  To name some:  
   drinking, smoking, overeating, drug use, sexual immorality.  
   The person who does not drink, smoke or overeat, who is health 
   and diet conscious and who carefully maintains his weight at a 
   healthy level, is likely to be much healthier and have far 
   fewer health problems than a smoking, drinking, obese person.  
   Consequently he is likely to incur far fewer medical expenses.  
   And thus it is only just and fair that his medical insurance 
   premiums should reflect costs for people who, like himself, 
   take care of themselves and have good life habits.  His 
   premiums ought not be based on some overall average that 
   includes people with all the bad life habits.  He should not be 
   forced to pay the costs of the bad habits of other people.  
   Each man should pay only for the cost he incurs.  It has been 
   in the news that the MEDICARE program is going to start paying 
   for weight reduction programs.  With two thirds of Americans 
   overweight that is going to dramatically increase the cost of 
   the MEDICARE program and consequently the premiums that people 
   must pay into the system.  Should a person who has for many 
   years watched his diet and carefully kept his weight down at a 
   healthy level have to pay these higher costs due to people who 
   can't, and probably never will, control their appetites?  So 
   much for that.  Let us go to another social habit that incurs 
   enormous social costs:  sexual promiscuity.  Our society spends 
   huge amounts of money supporting single, unmarried women and 
   their illegitimate children.  Question:  Should an honest, 
   hardworking, responsible, moral person be forced to pay 
   (through taxes) for costs arising from their immoral conduct?  
   Should he be forced to pay (through taxes) for the housing, 
   food and general keep of lazy, promiscuous, irresponsible 
   people who make no attempt to control their sexual appetites -- 
   along with all their illegitimate children?  The rules and laws 
   of any society should encourage healthy, good social behavior 
   and discourage bad, wrong behavior.  And they certainly should 
   not encourage immoral, bad behavior.  But this is exactly what 
   you are doing when you force the good, moral, responsible 
   people of a society to support the immoral, foolish, 
   irresponsible people.  And with the welfare system that we have 
   today the hardworking, responsible citizens do support the non-
   working, lazy, immoral through taxes.  That is not social 
   justice.  That is not any kind of justice.  This is creating 
   incentives of the worst kind.  It is encouraging lazy, 
   promiscuous, irresponsible, immoral behavior. 



   July 2004