Disturbing Poll of the Day: Americans favor Socialist Health Care Funding System

In Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand described a fictional factory which exemplified the illogical and counterproductive elements that inhere within the socialist model. The factory demanded from employees according to their ability, and distributed rewards to the same employees according to their needs. In the quagmire of entangled interests that ensued, the factory experienced a period of sharp decline before its quick and predictable demise.

Stunningly, a CNN/Opinion Research Corp. survey reveals that Americans favor the application of these nonsensical principles to domestic health care funding legislation over a much more intuitive alternative. As the linked article states, two out of every three committal voters prefer the House version of the bill, which places a higher tax burden on high income taxees, to the Senate version, which taxes according to the value of the policies.

As popular as ethical and moral trends have made them, attempts to deny the interests of the self as the primary motivation for human action remain as futile and as inane as they did in the time of Rand. "From each according to his ability, to each according to his need," is a philosophical model that is as incapable of successfully managing a country as it is managing a business. Hopefully those in Washington have more sense than those they represent.