berman@psuvax1.UUCP (Piotr Berman) (01/09/86)
> By the way, F. Paul Wilson wrote a very good short story > on what happens when the government institutes socialized medicine and > then figures out the best way to lower the high costs involved is to > (get this) force everyone to eat better diets. The story's called > "Lipidleggin'", and you can find it in the "Survival of Freedom" > anthology edited by Pournelle & Carr. > By the way, in Sweden TV is public (with the exception of cable), and so are medical services. The Swedes are encouraged to eat balance diet, not to overeat and to exercise. Sweden and Norway have the best health indicators in the world (or nearly the best), better than in US (now you may guess that the seatbelts use is mandatory and drunken driving prosecuted severely). The choice which behaviors should be mandated by law and which merely encouraged is a complicated matter whithout clear-cut criteria. Many aspects of the automoble use are already mandated. Some carcinogens are banned, some are allowed with warning labels (cigarette tar, saccharin). Drinking age laws are another example. More interestingly, many aspects of sexual behavior are mandated by law: many states forbid fornication, adultery and sodomy. (The last one is unclear to me: is it oral sex, anal sex, sex with animals or combination of those?). The opponent of seatbelts law often raise principled argument of the kind: if economical/medical/etc. gains are sufficient to enact a law, we may find ourselves in a huge, state run preschool. On the other hand, if such gains would not be allowed to motivate a law (like promotion of religion is not allowed), then I believe that this country would be much worse of. Piotr Berman