Vengeance is a tricky goal, and not good for us

I read a conversation in the Times this morning that neatly summed up my frustrations with many of my fellow Americans. The gist of it was a basic wish that society would make it a bit harder for people who make willfully "dumb" or harmful decisions. 

It might seem like piling on, but if an adult makes the decision to not get a vaccine, with no religious or health objections, should Medicare pay for treatment? If a person smokes for many decades and refuses to stop, should society pay for cancer treatment? If a motorcyclist chooses to not wear a helmet and crashes into a pole, should we all share in the expenses treating brain injury?

The reptilian part of my brain whispers "no" in reply to these hypotheticals. Who wouldn't like to see poor decisions repaid with some sort of punishment or pain? 

But then I think about the many, many bad decisions I have made in my life that I managed to survive, mostly scot free. 

And I think about a sister-in-law who refused to be vaccinated, got Covid, had to be hospitalized for nearly a week, and who has asthma. I assume she will now proudly tell everyone that it wasn't all that bad and that she now is immune to the virus. She isn't, of course, and if you have to be put on oxygen you can hardly argue that surviving the disease was a piece of cake.

Medicare covered all her expenses, of course, other than a minimal co-pay, though she is also a proud believer in making her own way and being a proud, independent Texan. She will not send anyone a portion of the social security she receives, nor will she stop arguing that immigrants are the main source of trouble in the country.

As I have mentioned before in this blog, hypocrisy is so rampant that it has become irrelevant.

We will continue to take care of those who make dumb decisions. That's what a society does. We may try to nudge people to make fewer dumb decisions, but that's about as far as we can go. 

I look forward to some future where a mechanism that pretty much mandates vaccines is created, with a carrot and stick tactic that even my sister-in-law can't deny.