Wherein we investigate what just happens to grow.
Op-Ed Columnist - America’s Defining Choice - NYTimes.com
posted by Weedgardener @ 8:35 AM
3 comments
I'm interested in what grows between the paving stones of received wisdom. I like to see what happens when people of differing opinion engage in respectful dialogue. There's not enough of that. I like to look at ordinary events and ask questions about why they are so. I try to spend some time really listening to trees and other silent things. I think about happiness, and the things people do to try to achieve it. What is happiness, and how do you know if you're happy? What are people really seeking when they seek happiness? For me, real happiness most often seems to come from doing something, however laughable, to make the world a better place. And, of course, reading the Funny Times
3 Comments:
Working in an ER for almost 30 years has taught me that their are Oh to many sucking off of Uncle Sams teet who should not be. Young healthy people wearing better clothes than I and with more gold on their "grill" than I had in my wedding band is a sorrowful sign of our dependent society. I say screw health care reform. Proper welfare reform would save enough of our hard earned tax dollars to provide proper coverage to them that really need it...including vets. Our major systems are broken. Partisan politics will ensure they stay that way.
I'm not sure what you mean. That people with gold in their teeth shouldn't be able to get emergency care?
Our un-reformed system is the most expensive in the world, because 30 cents out of every dollar we pay goes to a blood-sucking insurance company whose only motive is to provide a profit to its shareholders and giant salaries to its executives. Yet we have the lowest life expectancy and the highest infant mortality in the developed world.
The very fact that the uninsured go to the emergency room for care (because the emergency room can't turn them down) adds to the expense. And we pay the bill, through taxes and increased insurance premiums. The alternative, I suppose, is to let the undeserving poor die in the street without emergency care. But how would you determine who's undeserving and who has had some really bad breaks?
The rest of the developed world has some kind of universal healthcare, with no bottom-line-chasing insurance company in control. In other countries, when poor people get sick, they can go to a doctor instead of waiting until the situation is so dire they have to go to emergency. They can go right to a doctor when they get sick, saving everyone money and clearing the emergency room for real emergencies.
By the way, if you check the way the budget is allocated, I think you'll be surprised at how little of it goes to welfare. And how much of it goes to fighting wars that lead to more terrorist activity.
I'm with you, weedgardener. In Australia we've had state-funded medical and hospital care for decades, and the sky hasn't fallen. In fact, our economy is in good shape. It's a wonderful feeling to know that whatever happens to my family, they will be able to get the treatment they need. The system isn't perfect, but it's miles better than yours.
In New Zealand, they have state-funded no-fault insurance, which I also think is a great idea.
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