The State announced last Friday that it will no longer be offering any financial incentive for us to be fit. This means that all the hullabaloo last year over my fitbit and getting active has now been completely ablated. It also means that my health care costs will rise $50/month (I blame Obama who promised my premiums would go down $2500/year). More than anything else, it reveals a shortsightedness on the part of the state, because any money this might save them this year will be magnified tenfold or more in future years in the form of increased costs from people no longer making an effort to take care of themselves.
Most organizations do this kind of thing, taking away small benefits now to save in the immediate term. They do this, not because it's wise, but because they will only be in charge for a short while. When they leave, they will pass on the problem to a successor. They will be long gone when the fruits of their mismanagement emerge. Meanwhile, they can take credit for a temporary surplus, kind of like Bill Clinton does even though those savings never actually materialize, assuming nothing changes for the worst before the promises come due. It is folly for every administration of any organization to assume that the bill will not come due during their watch.
Such a naive expectation that we can get away without paying permeates every aspect of society. Students tell me that "it's only a crime if you get caught". By this logic, it is catching that makes it criminal and not the act. I imagine many people approach death thinking they got away with myriad crimes and personal choices. While they live, they talk of karma, but when they approach their own deaths, they think they got away with their crimes. I don't think it works that way. Most people on the planet believe that we reap what we sow, and I think it's equally asinine to assume that we will not have to pay our own bills when the day of accounting comes.
What parent who loves his child indemnifies that child to pay for his mistakes? Yet, these politicians, these administrators, burden generations as yet unborn, distal to them in space and time, and who had no say in the choices, to pay for the consequences of their choices. The healthy, the wise, those who prepared, and those who are responsible are always asked to pay to furnish protection for the rest. We are compelled to do this first by appeals to charity when it is not charitable and then by force of law when charity falls short. There is simply not enough in the world for everyone to have everything they want all the time regardless of their choices. It is nigh impossible for the productive and the prudent among us to provide for everyone else. It is also not virtuous for these people to demand everything from us and give us nothing in return. Yet, as Patrick Henry prophesied, they will demand that we plow and sow and reap to glut the avarice of men who would let loose on us the dogs of war to riot in our blood and drive us from the face of the earth.
Several months back, a former student of mine admitted she understood this in a compliment she paid me. Although she won't do anything to act on it, it shows that even those who would live on our virtues understand that the world turns on virtue. She told me that even if I don't have children I need to pass on the good parts of who I am to the next generation because the world needs people like me. Yes, the world needs people like me. The state health care is propped up by the fact that healthy, responsible people like me pay into a system from which they do not draw whilst coworkers drain from that system far beyond their poor power to pay it back. This was also a matter of prophecy. In the last days, there will be those who say, "Thou hast clothing, be thou our ruler and let not this ruin come under thy hand." As the response in that day of writ, I will not be a healer. I cannot save you from yourselves. I cannot compensate in the long term for short term and selfish policies. My paltry contribution is swallowed up and more by a coworker I have who is chronically at the doctor, someone who should retire but who does not because they cannot afford their bills on the retirement pay. It is NOT virtuous to prop up the weakest among us because they are your friends. These are not principled people. Like most elitists, they are only interested in the moment and what will help them advance their careers, and so their foresight is focused on personal advantage.
I will continue to do what I can to take care of myself because that's who I am. I know that I and I alone am mostly responsible for my own health and welfare. Sure, some luck and some opportunity and some networking comes into play, but you cannot get virtuous ends from means that are not virtuous. Most of the people trying to keep themselves fit via the fitbits will quit because there is no longer an incentive to do so besides fitness. Since there is more obligation, and since our outlays increase every year despite no commensurate increases in pay, they will see it as a law of diminishing returns. In previous jobs, I did more than expected because that's what I prefer. If I have to do the work anyway, I will do it on my terms rather than wait and expect others to carry the load. Foresight always trumps short sight. The state could do with some of the former. As for me, I'll be able to take care of my own and others if I so choose even if I don't desire to be a healer.
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