[Suggested editorial for the National Review, the Wall Street Journal, or similar publication]
Now that the last of the 33 miners has been pulled out of the collapsed mine in Chile, it is time to take stock of what has happened. This is a perfect example of what happens when you let big government run wild spending taxpayers' money on wasteful socialistic welfare programs. The Chilean government has spent millions of taxpayer dollars in order to carry out a highly-publicized operation just so that it could take credit for "rescuing" a mere 33 miners. This is the worst kind of pandering to special interests. And it ought to be a cautionary example to the voters of the United States of what will happen if the Democrats are allowed to continue their wasteful agenda of using taxpayers' money in order to carry out socialistic programs such as providing health care to people who can't afford it. If we do not put a stop to big government here and now, we may soon see socialized rescues in this country comparable to the horrible scenes we have been witnessing in Chile.
If we compare the socialized rescue program that has been carried out in Chile to the manner in which such a rescue would have been conducted if left to the free market, we can see just how dangerous big government socialism really is. Big government always does whatever it thinks will be politically popular and will appeal to special interests. So as we saw in Chile, the government thought nothing of spending huge amounts of taxpayers' money to rescue only 33 miners.
By contrast, the private sector will always do a cost/benefit analysis before undertaking an operation like this. The costs of this operation were very large. On the other hand, the benefits are limited. Again, we are talking about only 33 miners. They are easily replaceable. In fact, they could probably be replaced by younger miners who would be more productive and would work for lower wages. Indeed, one of these "rescued" miners was 63 years old! Obviously, there aren't a lot of productive years left there. When you think about the amount of taxpayers' money that the government spent just to "rescue" a 63 year old miner, you can see just how insane socialism really is. No private business would ever engage in such insanity - it simply doesn't make economic sense.
In addition, if miners know that they cannot count on a government bailout every time they get trapped thousands of feet underground in a collapsed mine, they will have to be much more careful to avoid such "accidents" in the future. Miners have to take personal responsibility for their own safety and they should know not to rely on the "nanny state" to save them every time they screw up and get trapped in a collapsed mine. Socialism destroys personal responsibility. In fact, because of this highly-publicized socialized rescue operation in Chile, we will probably see a rash of so-called "accidents" with miners being trapped underground, just so they can force taxpayers to foot the bill to dig them out. That's what inevitably happens once socialism gets on the march.
If miners are really concerned about needing to be rescued, then they should make arrangements with private rescue companies. Miners could pay a fee to a private corporation for the service of being rescued in case they get trapped in a collapsed mine. But it should be clear - no fee, no rescue. That's the way the free market works.
The sorry events in Chile should be a wake-up call to all Americans of the dangers of big government. Support your local Tea Party candidate to make sure that the U.S. government will never throw away your money on socialized rescues. We must retain our freedom from all such socialism. Otherwise, we may be forced to resort to our Second Amendment remedies.