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I Am Not Responsible For My Neighbor's Children

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Media Link - Boston Globe
Written by Michael J. Hurd, Ph.D.   
Monday, 17 November 1997 00:00
I reject the idea that it is government's responsibility to provide child care. To say that the government must take care of children is to transfer responsibility for those children from those who created them to everyone else (or at least the productive ones who pay taxes). I do not accept this responsibility. I do not have any children. If I did have children, I would consider it my job to care for them -- either through staying home with them or hiring a private facility to take care of them. I would not expect my neighbors to drop their interests and responsibilities in order to do it for me. I would be even more horrified by the idea of them being forced, by Big Government, to do it for me. The government has no right to hold a gun to my neighbor's head to make him take care of my kids. And forcing people to give up a portion of their earnings to pay for everyone's child care is what this amounts to. The Clintons' idea of nationalized child care -- just like their earlier, failed proposal for nationalized health care -- rests on the premise of collectivism. Collectivism means that everyone is responsible for everyone else -- and by implication, that nobody is responsible for himself. This is nonsense. It makes much more sense for me to be responsible for myself and my neighbor to be responsible for himself. Even more important, no government has the moral right to force me to be responsible for my neighbor. To do so is a violation of my individual rights under the Constitution. Thomas Jefferson did not fight for the values of life, liberty, and the pursuit of other people's happiness. Individual rights -- the rights upon which all other rights depend -- refer to the right to pursue one's own happiness. President and Mrs. Clinton, please, leave us alone!
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