85. Commuter:
“You’re right, the Constitution doesn’t say that. But you’re wrong in saying that the government did it because they understood etc. The internet grew out of the ARPnet, which was a DoD initiative. Electronic computing traces it’s birth to ballistics programs funded by military budgets.”
Big deal. My point remains that this was a partnership between federal government and private industry that produced powerful and lucrative results that benefit private industry. Without federal government investment, there would be no Internet or personal computers.
“So both your examples come from the military, which IS provided for in the Constitution, as it makes provisions for government functions servicing the common public good. The military, treaties with foreign powers, interstate commerce etc. And those functions themselves are predicated on the common sense realization of the founding fathers that the individual is not capable of defending his rights in all cases and that some functions must necessarily be exercised by the government the representative of the rights of all citizens collectively. “
Here is where your argument collapses. You write that “[the Constitution] makes provisions for government functions servicing the common public good”, yet you seemed to be very tunnel-visioned in your interpretation of your own words. To you, it seems, only military investment is a “common good”; whereas investment in the health and well being of the citizens of our nation is not a “common good”. In essence, your very shoddy argument is that the Internet is a common good worth investing in but that health of the American people is not.”
“Health Care is not a right and that argument cannot be made in the debate over Obamacare. The only constitutionally supported intrusion of the government into the issue based on ‘rights’ is to ensure that no citizen is prevented from seeking out health insurance, nor forced to seek out health insurance, nor punished for not doing so.”
Health care is not a right just as much as access to the Internet is not a right. Yet, if you’re going to define Internet as a common good, as you do above, there is no reason that health care should not be defined as a common good also. The Constitution clearly provides for it.
