The End Game of a "Public Option"

Given the political philosophies of some of the strongest supporters of a "public healthcare option," it would be reasonable to suspect that this sort of invasion is a desired outcome, not an unfortunate development, in the quest to engineer a healthcare and well-being system for the people's own good:

The Children's Secretary set out £400million plans to put 20,000 problem families under 24-hour CCTV super-vision in their own homes.

They will be monitored to ensure that children attend school, go to bed on time and eat proper meals.

Private security guards will also be sent round to carry out home checks, while parents will be given help to combat drug and alcohol addiction.

Targeting root causes is a productive principle for organizing a social response, but the unavoidable conclusion is that people very often turn out, themselves, to be the root causes of their own problems. Two routes around that reality exist: claim an ever-more-invasive right of public manipulation of their lives to force them to live by an imposed definition of "correctly," or guide them philosophically toward a worldview that tends to contribute to the desired conclusions and behaviors. The latter is a much more extensive project, and typically requires that public coercion not be central to implementation — the exceptions coming only when government inaction is tantamount to favoring the other side and to be indulged only to the most minimal degree possible.

Unfortunately, the latter approach has been systematically targeted and decried as "oppressive" by movements that (surprise, surprise) wind up advocating for the former approach.

(via Mark Steyn in the Corner)