Re: [at-l] MAKE EM PAY!!!

[bullard@northnet.org]

At 10:20 AM 3/24/99 -0600, Bucky wrote:
>Fallingwater wrote:..snip..
>> Many would ask why should the park or anyone else pay. That's a good
>> question. It's also one I ask myself when some gang member with no
>> insurance gets shot, winds up in the hospital crippled for life. A
>> needless, senseless act that will in the end cost me thousands of
>> dollars over the years in increased insurance payments. 
>
>Why are you, in effect, insuring other people?

The alternative to our taxes and higher insurance premiums paying for care
to people like the above is to say that anyone without enough cash or
insurance should be allowed to die on the hospital's doorstep rather than
providing what they need. Such people would include a lot folks who are
poor but not necessarily "bad" people. Or maybe you'd make an exception for
those who arrived with appropriate character witnesses.
>
>> Why should I pay for some ass that want's to drink himself into a stupor
>> and need a liver transplant years from now. Yet I've read many post
>> extolling the virtues of beer on the trail.
>
>Funny how welfare statism makes people's private vices everyone else's
>business. "He who pays the fiddler" and all that.

The very nature of insurance is "shared risk". Paying only for your own is
called a savings account. We have both public and private insurance in this
country. Usually the public insurance through government programs covers
covers those who can't afford the private type. Social Security covers us all.
>
>> There are no easy answers.
>
>Make me dictator -- I'll stop this kind of Schumer inside of a week. It
>won't be pretty, though.

Hiking is about freedom. Dictators are incompatible with freedom. Looking
out for one another (whether or not it is 'deserved') makes freedom
possible without being rich first. 
>
>> PS. I spent 7 plus year in Mountain Rescue. We purchased all of our own
>> personal and group gear. Had to train 1 weekend a month, and never ask
>> the victims for a dime. It would have been considered an insult to both
>> the rescuers and the victim. Our job is to help not judge!
>
>Sanction of the victim.

They should be fined for violating any rules they broke but the rescue
should be free.

Saunterer
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