Bioethicist Art Caplan advocates taxing cats to help fund healthcare because they can make you sick, adding to the societal burden of care. From, “A Modest Proposal: To Solve Healthcare Funding Crisis, Tax Cats” at the MSNBC:
Once a cat is in a home it is nearly impossible to get the cat allergens out of the bedding, carpets and furniture. The cost to all of us of treating cat-induced asthma, rhinitis, skin reactions and allergies is big. While there are no specific numbers for paying for the shots and drugs to treat the health problems due to cats, the overall medical cost for treating all allergies in the USA exceeds $7 billion. And that does not include time lost from work or days out of school due to allergies.
One drug that is now frequently prescribed for kids and adults with chronic asthma due to exposure to cats, omalizumab, costs anywhere from $6,000 to $24,000 a year depending on dose. One in 2,000 of those with cat allergies require a trip to the hospital in any given year due to an acute adverse reaction to shots or drugs!
Of course, Art was using absurdity to make a point against taxing the obese in the healthcare system. I have made the same point in my oft proposed advocacy for taxing promiscuity. But then again, if we can think it, someday some Obamacarian technocrat will almost surely try and do it.
Dear Reader,
Can I be direct with you?
War abroad. Socialists on the rise. AI upending human life. Endless uproar online. The modern attention economy doesn’t want readers — it wants users enslaved to the tyranny of the present.
First Things is the antidote: literary excellence, timeless truths, and a fixed point of reference in a culture that has lost its bearings.
But we can’t do it without readers like you.
Our goal: Raise $150,000 by November 1 to sustain First Things in the year ahead.
Your gift anchors readers in the permanent things.
Make your Fall Campaign gift now using the button below.
If you have any questions or would like more information, please contact Giovanni Del Piero, Director of the Editor’s Circle, at gdelpiero@firstthings.com or 212-627-1985.
YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE
The Church in the Age of Therapy
In 1966, Philip Rieff wrote in The Triumph of the Therapeutic that “Religious man was born to…
Canada’s Deadliest Blind Spot
On September 20, the Daily Mail ran a story with the provocative headline, “Our 83-year-old Christian grandmother…
The Faithful Joy of Dolly Parton and Fulton Sheen
Dolly Parton and Fulton Sheen seem to have had little in common. She favored rhinestones; he wore…
