[MD] NHS? No thanks

[craigerb at comcast.net]

[Arlo] 
> First, a human life takes moral precedence over static social pattern, such as money.

Only if you consider money as just inorganic ink & exorganic paper or as a social institution.  But what if you consider money as the embodiment of value, as the product of past effort & as future benefit?  

[Arlo] 
> "A human being is a collection of ideas, and these ideas take moral precedence 
> over a society. Ideas are patterns of value. They are at a higher level of 
> evolution than social patterns of value." (LILA)

I have a lot of high quality ideas: free speech, jury trials, the Pythagorean theorem. But if I go, there are still millions of others who have these ideas--the ideas themselves don't die.  So my having these ideas gives you no reason to provide for my subsistance (food, clothing, shelter, health care).  Now, of the 6,000,000,000 people on earth, there is someone whose ideas are important enough & unique enough for me to want to provide for their subsistance.  For me, it is Alan Greenspan, for you Citizen X.  Even so, I don't value these ideas enough to be FORCED to provide subsistance for Greenspan.  Nor would I want you to be forced to do so.  Needless to say, nor would I want to be forced to provide subsistance for X.  The good news is that Greenspan (& X for that matter) have no trouble providing for their own subsistance in the free market.

[Arlo] 
> Second, a society that does not preserve the lives of its citizens, risks 
> weakening its capacity to evolve. 

True.  That's why I support capital punishment to get rid of or deter those who prevent us from protecting our citizens.
Craig