Opinion

Halloween and its safety cautions got me thinking. Parents were advised to avoid homes of strangers and stay close to home. While this suggestion is probably wise in certain neighborhoods under certain circumstances, it reminded me of a time when I was a parent of young children, when I felt myself going very counter to mainstream culture. “Stranger danger” was all the rage, and no good parent ignored warnings that to grow up safely in North America a child needed to be well versed in the possibility that they could get offered candy from a car window and then swept away forever, or touched in private places by their day care provider or babysitter.

I was listening to a discussion on the radio the other day about the excessive cost of American health care. The very circular talk kept coming back to the absurd notion that profit-driven health care and insurance plans can and will compete their way to lower costs in the long run. They didn’t come anywhere close to dipping a toe in the other half of the problem of cost: that we’ve become unhealthy and sedate, overfed by a food industry that specializes in unsustainable cheap food. You are what you eat. Cheap food cost low, health care cost high. The Former Republicans in the bunch said “Let the free market take care of business”, forgetting that the free market is what got us here in the first place. The liberals in the bunch noted that a single- payer system will eventually be the answer (here, here), without explaining that in order for that to work you need to regulate costs. Sounds too much like socialism to say that.

Economic history has always fascinated me. It presents a conundrum that I have never solved: How the heck are countries (specifically for me, my country) supposed to regulate economic relations with other countries? In the (relatively) short history of my own country, I see plenty of examples of failure, and not a lot of success, if I define success as policies that improve, or at least leave undisturbed, the well-being of inhabitants all around.

People, check your sources and go vote. I may have been a bit overbearing in recent columns, allowing my emotions to rule the day. I long ago learned that if you want a reader to take the time to wade through an opinion, you likely shouldn’t kick the reader in the shins, especially those who may not agree with you. A little shin-kicking is a good thing on occasion, don’t get me wrong, especially when common sense flies out the window and propaganda and misinformation flies right in.

“Safety First on Halloween” reads the Halloween page of the Lake County Press last week. As a parent of teens who, sadly, have moved on from trick or treating, it makes me sad.

Like it or not, Daylight Savings Time is upon us again. Here’s a friendly reminder to set your clocks back by one hour Saturday night so that you can be on time for whatever it is you need to be on time for Sunday morning.