An elegantly persuasive post from Reihan. Money quote:
Some say, “we do it with car insurance!” Regulating automobiles, which involve a dense web of surveillance, regular registration, etc., is a piece of cake in comparison. Your right to drive can be revoked. What do you do to an incorrigible skinflint who refuses to buy health insurance?
The ongoing revolution in the biosciences makes these questions mostly moot. We are arguing about building a coercive apparatus to solve a social problem that won’t exist in the same form for very long. But of course that coercive apparatus will never go away.