OK, that’s a real mess. So how did it happen?
Simple. The government decided some nice people should get something free and some other people should have to pay, not because they deserved to but because they could. It wasn’t even fair. In this sense social justice already bears no discernible resemblance to actual justice. But, in any case, it didn’t work because many of the intended pinatas not only couldn’t pay, they didn’t have to.
Governments in hock up to our eyeballs don’t seem to get the basic notion that driving useful businesses like assisted-living residences into bankruptcy leaves their customers worse off. They certainly don’t grasp that owners are unlikely passively to submit to personal ruin for no social gain.
Faced with new requirements including staff background checks, “panic” buttons in all rooms and 24-hour surveillance that one owner claimed would cost between $200,000 and $300,000, owners didn’t just have choices. They had minds able to grasp those choices. They could notice a change in their circumstances, pleasant or otherwise, and respond rationally. People usually do. Yet many people in government simply don’t believe the common man or woman notices what’s going on and reacts sensibly.
When I say politicians think we’re stupid and helpless, this is what I mean. They figure we can’t tell what’s happening and if we could, we wouldn’t know what to do about it.
