It’s interesting to compare two maps of America. One showing states that resisted mask mandates during the height of the pandemic. The other showing states with anti-abortion trigger laws that will take effect as soon as the Supreme Court issues its final ruling on Roe v. Wade.
If you guess that many of the states on both maps are the same... you would be right.
The same states where mask mandates “violated” individual freedom, oppose reproductive freedom for women.
This contradiction about freedom isn’t new in America. And in fact, it exists in California’s Workers’ Compensation system today.
In the 1700’s, conservatives defined freedom as the “peaceful enjoyment of one’s life and property.” That definition justified restricting voting rights to men who owned property and a Senate made up of men with wealth.
The so-called “grand bargain” that created Workers’ Compensation advanced that definition of freedom by eliminating the right to sue thereby protecting the “peaceful enjoyment of property” while offering the masses a “no-fault” system of benefits when injured.
As the system evolved the “peaceful enjoyment of one’s life and property” has remained intact for employer and insurers while the injured workers’ “no-fault” system has become a growing list of obstacles, delays, and denials.
Quite simply the definition of freedom as the “peaceful enjoyment of one’s life and property” cannot exist in a Work Comp system that denies the freedom to choose a doctor, the freedom to access medical treatment, the freedom to return to work quickly. A system that apportions freedom based on age and gender and genetics
