Socialism: Building a Bridge to the 18th Century

This is what happens when your choices in life are socialized:

This Saturday, one of Greece’s most respected newspapers, To Vima, reported that the nation’s largest government health insurance provider would no longer pay for special footwear for diabetes patients. Amputation is cheaper, says the Benefits Division of the state insurance provider.

To use a dental analogy, in East Germany crowns and fillings were not done to the degree that they would be in any civilized society. They simply pulled teeth until enough of them were gone by a certain age to justify dentures – one set – the lifetime allotment.

Greece’s National Healthcare System was created in the early 1980s, during the tenure of Prime Minister Andreas Papandreou. Papandreou, an academic, won election under the slogan, Αλλαγή, which is the Greek word for Change.

Emphasis mine. Sallow dyspepsia theirs.

Never mind the ways that they could be cut up, redistributive policies lead to degeneration of the WHOLE pie. It’s something that brings the motive and outcome of candidate Obama’s exchange with Joe the Plumber into sharp focus. Redistributive policies even shaft the people they try to help.