Hickory Chamber of Commerce, Mr. Hearn, and Failure

I have just read one of the most amazing statement I have ever seen in my entire life. Mr. Daniel Hearn, President and CEO of the Catawba County Chamber of Commerce, made it in the December, 2009 issue of “Hickory Living” in the column called “Inside the Chamber”.

In an article titled “Campaign for Free Enterprise”, Mr. Hearn stated that “Government . . . cannot compete in the private sector in such areas as health care, for one simple reason. In order for free enterprise and competition to work, there must be the potential for failure.”

My immediate response would come as a question to Mr. Hearn asking him which part of his own health care plan would he like to see subject to failure. Particularly since many Americans have seen their health care plan fail when they were diagnosed with serious illness, or suffered serious injury. And when you do name that part of the American health care plan you would like to see subject to failure, Mr. Hearn, please pick a part of it which has not yet already failed.

While we are at it, I would like for Mr. Hearn to also describe which part of his own retirement plan he would like to see subject to failing, particularly after he had paid into it for forty or so years, like many Americans have experienced with their own retirement plans in the past three or four years.

Mr. Hearn elaborates on his statement by claiming that if a company has no possibility of failure, “ . . . then why would you worry about providing he best quality, service and cost for that product of service?” Obviously he has not noticed that when the big businesses failures of 2009 occurred, it was the “owners” of the companies who found themselves with suddenly worthless stock, while the management floated away on golden balloons.

I think Mr. Hearn has just shown the most compelling reason why the United States Government must control the people’s health care and retirement systems. If anything in any country is too big or too important to fail, then it must be the protection of the health and well-being of its workforce.