THERE was a time when governments couldn’t give a toss whether or not you smoked. Nor if you drank too much, consumed sugar by the bucket nor enjoyed a little extra salt on your chips.

That was considered your business and you lived with the consequences.

Not any more. Governments now obsess over everything you consume, inhale or inject.

They tax the bejesus out of items bureaucrats consider unhealthy (think smokes, alcohol & soft drink containers). And pay strangers way too much of your tax money to appear on your television harassing you to get fit.

Why have they begun to care so much? Is this a new post-modern era of big brotherly love? Not a chance. It’s because of socialised medicine. Medicare to be precise.

CREEPING

If governments are to be directly responsibility for paying for your healthcare, then they feel perfectly entitled to control everything you do that might impact your health.

They call it saving tax-payer dollars. The tax-payer experience is altogether something different – more like big brother’s creeping influence into every aspect of their lives.

Whether it’s taxing your smokes, alcohol, sugar, salt, fatty foods or a new trend of government-enforced changes to your favourite fast food recipes (think Labor’s 2019 policy) the do-gooders now control your choices.

And there isn’t a solution, nor “appetite”, to fix this. The Medicare horse has bolted and your doctor is laughing all the way to the bank. But there’s a lesson to be learned: never, ever accept government assistance for otherwise personal expenses.

The next time government officials rock up offering to kindly cover the cost of your hair care, give them a two finger reply and run. Otherwise it’ll be bowl cuts and blue rinse for you while your hairdresser-cum-lobyist upgrades from Mazda to Mercedes.PC