Meerkat Reblogs: Do the Math
I know that for most people doing math hurts . . . physically, as in “my brain hurts.” But Thom Hartmann recently did the math on the cost of …
Do the Math
Here is an excellent post from Steve Ruis, who accurately sums up the strange attitude that exists in the USA toward healthcare. I can already picture the response from the conservative right, protesting the involvement of government, defending the right to make money etc, all whilst ignoring the serious problem of unchecked greed.
Unfortunately, unchecked greed seeps into a great many aspects of life, and this particularly seems to be the case over in the USA. Whilst I can never condone murder, the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson reflects the fury that is inevitable in a system where money, not the public interest, dictates who receives medical care. The USA remains a strange outlier among so many developed nations, and for so many reasons, with the attitude toward wealth being one of the biggest.
Should people have the opportunity to make money? Yes, I absolutely believe they should. Hard work should be rewarded. Good work should be rewarded. With that said, there are people making fortunes off the hard, good work of others. There is a tremendous imbalance with wages (not just in the USA), and extortionate fees faced by tens of millions of Americans, every year, for the most basic elements of healthcare. What’s worse is that some people fanatically defend this system, despite the success of nationalised healthcare elsewhere in the world.
Somewhere along the line, for reasons I cannot understand, Americans were convinced by their political and financial elite that being exploited in the name of opportunity was preferable to the alternative. Worse, they were persuaded – by those wielding money and power – that this was worth celebrating. They have been trained to fear anything even remotely resembling government involvement in public services, taught to decry such moves as ‘Marxism’. Such is the extent of the American love of money/fear of any other way that men like Elon Musk can now effectively buy considerable influence over political proceedings (as seen with the recent funding issues). Somehow, the USA has a system dominated by money. Yes, money is a powerful driving force in politics around the world, but the extent to which US politicians – even inbound president Donald Trump (or perhaps especially Donald Trump) – can be controlled by the interests of the wealthy strikes me as truly unique among developed nations.
What’s even more staggering is that this defence of a for-profit healthcare model ignores the facts, as presented by Mr Ruis: the cost of universal healthcare would be cheaper for Americans than it is now. Corporate interests and business empires have long held the reins of power in the USA, and this trend does not look like it will be broken, any time soon, especially given that Elon Musk now wields a considerable degree of power over Trump. The love of money has truly overtaken the concept of doing what’s right.
