Unleashing Your Inner Nanny

"There is a nanny inside all of us," says Paul Rahe, author of Soft Despotism, Democracy's Drift. Not a very comforting thought, but probably true.

Having multiple academic degrees, I often think I know better than a lot of people. I certainly have no shortage of feeling that people ought to do as I do, whether in relationships, health, or otherwise. Still, I don't hold a gun to people's head forcing them to do as I say.

Yet that is precisely what is going to happen when health care comes under more, and possibly immense, government control. Over time, we will all become each other's nannies. Why? It's simple: When we are responsible for each other's health care costs, everyone’s lifestyle becomes our business. The fat guy's clogged arteries, the runner’s bad knee, the smoker's lung cancer, the overworked executive's heart disease, the skateboarder’s broken arm--they are not going to be just their problems, but yours as well.

At first, the government, with the help of do-gooder interest groups and "public health" scientists, will put out guidelines on how to live a healthy life. You know, things like: work out at least 30 minutes a day, stay away from trans fats and junk food, get eight hours of sleep each night, quit smoking, cut down on the booze... Then, those guidelines will be enforced by making insurance companies pay for educative and preventive health services, banning smoking from public and private areas, mandating restaurants to remove trans fats from their food and to display nutritional information, legislating the use of seat belts and motorcycle helmets, prohibiting the sale of soda and junk food in schools... Wait, the nannies already accomplished all that!

The more government gets involved in health care, the less health will be a private matter--an issue of personal responsibility--and the more it will be under public scrutiny. Psychologically that means we will resent those who do not conform to what is "good" or "approved" behavior, and we will seek control over them to make them behave in ways that won't harm our pocketbooks. Be assured: Government-run health care eventually will unleash the nannies in all of us.

Combine nannyism with simple majority rule, and tyranny is only a few steps away: