The "Affordable" Care Act

af·ford·a·ble

/əˈfôrdəbəl/
adjective

1. inexpensive; reasonably priced.
"affordable housing"

Affordable? Says who? Here's a tip when analyzing statements made by politicians or anyone for that matter. As a Systems Analyst, I can't write a software specification that includes subjective, qualitative words. That's because there is absolutely no programming language that allows for subjective code to accomplish a task. For instance, when you're on a ticket purchasing website and you choose the "best available" seats, you can be assured that each seat has a numeric value defining how good the seat is that can be ordered with regard to all other seats. The program will sort the remaining available seats by this numeric value. There is also a mathematical algorithm used to calculate a seat's numeric value, likely some combination of distance from the activity being viewed and optimal viewing angle.

So when the Affordable Care Act was introduced my first question was how are they going to define affordable? How will they know what I think is affordable? That's the problem with quasi-socialists programs. They remove that decision from the individual and designate, via fiat, what is and isn't affordable regardless of whether we as citizens agree. In short, it is affordable because we say so!

That's where socialist governments are efficient: they make the necessary long term investment which benefit the community not the individual profit. - Philippe Cl (in response to Solyndra failing because there isn't a viable solar energy market in the United States)

Look at all the squishy words is this statement. Efficient, necessary, long-term, benefit, community. Each of these words is meaningless without details behind them. How do you define efficient? Who gets to define what is and isn't necessary? What is long term? 10 years? 20 years? Who gets to define is something is a benefit or a detriment? Finally, what is the population of this community? All citizens? Only those without cheap energy? Only those that are poor?

Collectivist believe that elites know the answers to these questions and know what's best for us. In fact, they arrogantly say that anyone voting for anyone other than them is voting against their own self-interest. The hubris is astounding because of course, they can't possibly know what's best of all 310 million Americans.

We are seeing now that the Affordable Care Act is anything but affordable. But a little common sense and the mind of a Systems Analyst could have let you know from the beginning that their task was impossible.