Random Rants
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We are the sickest country in the developed world—though the argument can be made that we are essentially a 3rd world oligarchy when judged from the quality of life of the majority of our citizens.
But we spend more per capita on healthcare than any other country in the world, so it has to be the best. That's how capitalism works, right?
And we're in a much better position now, but there was a time when my wife and I were both self employed and buying health insurance for the family on the open market. Our premiums were more than our mortgage.
That said, our son managed to incur approximately half a million dollars in total medical costs before his first birthday, so it was a relative bargain…
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the argument can be made that we are essentially a 3rd world oligarchy when judged from the quality of life of the majority of our citizens.
I don't want to start a divisive argument here. I love very deeply a lot of my American friends (and that includes a lot of you), but if I never go to a large American town again it'll be far too soon. The desperate plight of the homeless is something that any 1st world country should be deeply embarrassed about. I find it tragic, appalling and jaw-droppingly uncomfortable in equal measures.
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Maybe the first/third or developing/developed world language has always been a bit off?
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Since NC is one of the holdouts that still haven’t even expanded Medicare
*Medicaid FWIW.
For our foreign audience, Medicare is our federally-administered health insurance program for seniors (>=65 years of age) or anyone of any age with end stage renal disease. It is by far the most popular health insurance plan and one of the most popular public programs. It also serves as a driver for more innovative health insurance models, such as those falling under "value based care" which realign and repair the perverse economic incentives we have that drive waste. On balance, the success of the program has led to calls to make it universal or at least available at a younger age.
Medicaid is our state-administered health insurance program for the needy. States were given the option for the federal government to fund raising the bar (% of the Federal Poverty Level for a household) to include more households in the program. Many states declined this under the excuse that they would eventually be responsible for the increased funding (which is true) without acknowledging that their overall healthcare costs would be lower*–so they shot themselves in the foot and made an obviously poor economic decision just to be mean to poor people.
*This has already been demonstrated: states that took the expansion have had less uncompensated care and therefore lower overall health expenditure from state treasuries, since people who cannot or will not pay for their care will still receive it, leaving others to cover their costs
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the argument can be made that we are essentially a 3rd world oligarchy when judged from the quality of life of the majority of our citizens.
I don't want to start a divisive argument here. I love very deeply a lot of my American friends (and that includes a lot of you), but if I never go to a large American town again it'll be far too soon. The desperate plight of the homeless is something that any 1st world country should be deeply embarrassed about. I find it tragic, appalling and jaw-droppingly uncomfortable in equal measures.
1,000%
And it is getting worse, and will get even worse. And the reaction of many of our people is… less than compassionate. Instead of reacting as Giles did, a lot of us dehumanize the needy and make life even harder for them. We are so stingy with our resources that we don't understand the concept of ROI when it comes to dealing with problems like homelessness and drug addiction. We just want them out of sight and out of mind without having to pay for it. That's not how this works...
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We just want them out of sight….....
There's the irony, they aren't out of sight…....
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I live in Missouri, a state where voters approved Medicaid expansion in August of 2020. However, Missouri also has a state government hell bent on denying folks access to Medicaid so they tried (unsuccessfully) to block it. The Missouri Supreme Court finally ruled unanimously that the Medicaid expansion was indeed constitutional in August 2021. Missouri is a mess, government-wise, and I’m ashamed of lots of the legislation being pushed by our officials.
@mclaincausey I agree with all you’ve said here. What I’m always trying to figure out is where did America’s callousness originate? It’s on display in how we’ve tackled the COVID crisis, civil rights, healthcare reform, homelessness, education…the list is endless. It’s all so disheartening. I keep coming back to the fact that our country is so young and was founded by people who were inherently risk-takers and had to be some degree of callous just to survive. Mix those character traits (and simple greed) with the embarrassment of resources we have and I guess it morphs into what we’ve become. And the thing is, I absolutely love certain aspects of the United States…but there are daily reminders we have a long way to go.
“Random Rant” achieved!!
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We just sweep them under the freeways here
We just want them out of sight….....
There's the irony, they aren't out of sight…....
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It could be that as I've aged my perspective has changed, but our rugged individualism seems to be ranging ever deeper into sociopathy over the years. But then again you think about how the country was established through murder, bad faith, and theft (this shouldn't be controversial to anyone familiar with our forebears' tactics against the natives), then slavery, then indentured servitude, then robber barons, and I think maybe we've just never been very nice to one another. What humanitarian features have been added to government (abolition of child labor, Medicare/Medicaid, Social Security, etc) seem to be rooted in an America that came and went, when the working class was united against exploitation, rather than being demonized against one another based on cultural issues that have little to no impact on our day to day.
I've probably already crossed the line on the forum's rules so I'll shut up now.
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We just want them out of sight….....
There's the irony, they aren't out of sight…....
Exactly, which speaks to the short-sightedness of Americans; we're not willing to spend money to deal with problems, so they become exponentially worse and ultimately more expensive… and we don't get the results we expected to magically appear based on doing nothing.
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What humanitarian features have been added to government (abolition of child labor, Medicare/Medicaid, Social Security, etc) seem to be rooted in an America that came and went, when the working class was united against exploitation, rather than being demonized against one another based on cultural issues that have little to no impact on our day to day.
This. Well said.
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Watch the documentary 'capital'. It very nicely demonstrates what has happened to the ownership of capital since the industrial revolution in Europe. Government's job, ultimately, is to protect capital and its owners.
How politicians, regardless of which country's population they suppose to represent, can own businesses or receive money from lobbiests with blatant financial motives is beyond me.
Many decades ago my grandad said to me 'where are all the statesmen boy?'. He was right, we just have career politicians on a trajectory from either university or big business.
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Shit, so sorrt Clint….
Random observation. It always amazes (appals) me that old treads do not seem to get picked up and removed in the USA. I am always aghast when travelling the freeways how much rubber is left lying around. It is clearly very dangerous, and thank god, that in this case, it was only the car that was damaged.
