Comments by "JLH" (@Kyarrix) on "ENDEVR"
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@BendItMakeItClap69 Are you aware that in the US healthcare and dental care are not available for many? Do you understand that people lose their homes because they get sick even when they've done nothing wrong and taken precautions? Did you know that this issue is treated differently in most other countries?
My profession has required that I learn a lot about this topic. Rather than respond in the style of your first comment, take a moment and read what I've written and think about it. I've written a lot and spent time on this because it's important.
You felt that the person you were responding to is giving people an excuse, that people lack self-awareness and responsibility but this goes far beyond responsibility and involves much greater issues.
A person can be the epitome of responsibility and still find themselves in a terrible situation. Your spouse gets cancer, you need an emergency appendectomy, your child has an abscess in their mouth or breaks their leg. What happens in those situations? If you don't have health insurance, you go into debt and can lose your home. There are diabetics in this country who routinely have to choose between medication and paying other bills, medication they need to live or food. The medication they need is a fraction of the price in Canada. It's so much more expensive here because the pharmaceutical industry, corporations in general, have tremendous influence and power relative to other countries. We don't regulate, ostensibly because of our belief in free markets and we allow profit to come before the needs of our citizens.
In the US there is a belief that free markets are the way to prosperity for everyone. Free markets can work when everyone brings something to the table, where we need each other. One person sells an item, the other person buys it. One person sells a service, another buys it and the person selling the service then goes and purchases goods.
But there is a point where wealth and influence tip too far in one direction, where one side has so much power that the other loses the ability to bargain and negotiate fairly. For example, if there are 20 businesses in your town, you can negotiate a wage. The businesses need employees and you can, in theory, find a job that benefits both you and your employer. The system works best when both sides understand that they are both necessary. When an employee brings experience and the willingness to work hard, the employer understands that their business is making money because of the work of the employees. It should be synergy, both should negotiate in good faith and benefit.
What happens though when there is only one employer? The potential workers lose their ability to negotiate. That employer has a monopoly on employment and you either take what they offer or starve.
If one company has a monopoly on manufacturing insulin they can charge as much as they want for it and you have to pay it or die. The only other option is for the government to step in and regulate. But if that company donates a lot of money to your party, if your uncle is on the board, if these are the people you know and socialize with, if the highly paid lobbyists do their jobs, if gerrymandering has resulted in the party representing the minority controlling government and many other factors, you could end up with a situation where that regulation doesn't happen. You could end up with a situation where people routinely have to create GoFundMe to pay medical bills, where friends traveling to Canada are asked to bring back months of prescription medications because they cost a fraction of what they would here.
We are the only developed nation that does not provide a basic level of healthcare. We are the only developed nation that allows necessities such as insulin to be priced so high that people can't afford it. All other developed nations and some that are considered still developing do better. The US spends 17% of GDP on healthcare but ranks dead last among the 11th wealthiest countries in outcome. That is a stunning piece of information. It is a problem that we have to fix.
Do you understand where this is going? We spend twice as much but our healthcare is the worst. The biggest reason is because the money we spend does not actually go for healthcare, it goes to insurance companies and the for-profit bureaucracy and machinery of healthcare in this country.
Everywhere else, and I've lived in other places, healthcare is not a for-profit industry. It's understood that healthcare is a necessity just like infrastructure and that money spent on healthcare should actually be used for that purpose rather than more than half of it going to health insurance companies and corporate salaries.
You're familiar with the term infrastructure; roads, bridges, airports, power plants, our taxes are used to pay for infrastructure and for things like school, firefighters and police, the postal service. These are all essential services and we pay for them together because we use them. Similarly, in most other countries it's understood that a basic level of healthcare and dental care is essential.
Workers in the US have minimal bargaining rights. Compared to the 60s and 70s, the wealth inequality gap has increased tremendously. Where before a CEO might make 10x the salary of an employee, they now make much, much more. In the '60s and '70s you could work in a factory and support a family at a good standard of living. Now it takes two working and most middle class families still struggle.
Here's another piece of information, more than 50% of families in this country cannot handle a $400 emergency. What has changed? Has everyone suddenly become less responsible? When you consider the economic changes that have created this situation, these changes were never in the power of those affected.
Every year wealth in the US is concentrated in fewer hands. We have now reached a point where less than 1% of the population have more of the available wealth and assets than the bottom two thirds. This was never the case before, there were those who were richer and those who had less, but this much of a chasm, is unsustainable. In order for a society to work, those who do the work have to be able to live a decent life. They used to be able to and now they are not.
There are many more factors and I've written a lot already but this should give you a place to start. You watched this video, that suggests that you are interested in the topic. I spent 20 minutes of my evening writing this for your benefit in the hopes that you will use it as a jumping off place to learn more.
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