Living is a Privilege

I remember when I got a driver's licence and some smart ass kid (probably me) asked why we needed one. The answer, "driving is a privilege, not a right". That makes a certain amount of sense. No one has to drive. It may be inconvenient but you can live without it. The president concerns me when he advocates an individual mandate for health care:

That's why under my plan, individuals will be required to carry basic health insurance - just as most states require you to carry auto insurance. Likewise, businesses will be required to either offer their workers health care, or chip in to help cover the cost of their workers...

People do not choose to be born, so it is certainly not appropriate to compare a health care mandate to an auto insurance mandate. This is government attempting to control you. Their justification? They choose to pay for some folks who don't have health insurance. Who thinks it is appropriate to punish responsible people for the sake of those that are not responsible? I don't.

You may say that not everyone without insurance is irresponsible. True, it may be because they don't have enough money. That's an easy problem, give them money. The only people who need a mandate are the irresponsible. Should mandates be demanded for everything where some of us are irresponsible?

How many people are irresponsible anyway? I don't think the vast majority of Americans are irresponsible. Should we design a system based on the premise that a significant number of Americans are irresponsible? Here's an idea, treat irresponsible people different than responsible people. We deserve it.