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2.02.2005
The New York Times > Business > Study Ties Bankruptcy to Medical Bills: "'If you're sick enough long enough, you're in deep trouble in our society,' said David Himmelstein, an associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, another of the study's authors." There's your fucking crisis dipshit! Something to remember as tonight the President inhales room temp air and exhales a gale of hot air. I hope lots of people saw last night's Nighline. If not, I'll summarize it for you in a mock recreation of the interviews: Reporter: "So are you saying that Bush's plan for SS is a bad idea?" Man : "Yeah, collosally bad!" Reporter: "Is there any good way to execute Bush's SS plan?" Man: "Nope, it doesn't make a lick of sense to me or anyone else either." Reporter: "Is Bush just making shit up?" Man: "Pretty much, he fudges numbers to scare people but he's just full of shit." Reporter: "What would make Bush's plan workable." Man: "I dunno, a magic calculator, a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, a time machine...?" In short, Bush is going to do alot of talking about the cosmetics of his Social Security derailment plan but in the end he is not going to talk about the mechanics which accomplishs nothing towards "fixing" SS. The mechanics, as they are laid out will result in a slow dismantling of Social Security. The U.S. government will spend trillions of dollars moving people into the stock market, they will then jigger with the numbers to reduce the effectiveness of the program to keep people out of poverty, declare the sytem "broken" and call for an end to Social Security. "If you're sick enough long enough, you're in deep trouble in our society" What people seem to grossly misunderstand, or choose not to consider, is that the market is incredibly prejudiced in favor of people with lots of money. Everything looks great as long as you have money, people return your calls, you get good service, businesses climb all over themselves to cater to your needs. But, once you no longer have money, you get nothing. You are a leper. Society is essentially closed for you. If you get sick, you better have a mountin of money, especially if you can no longer work. Medical costs these days have climbed through the roof. Even people with employee sponsored health care are having difficulties. One person cited in the bankruptcy study, for example, broke a leg, missed a couple of months of work and then had $13,000 in unpaid medical bills, though his employer-based health plan had already paid for much of his care, Ms. Warren said. If you think that nothing bad will ever happen to you then you are an even bigger moron than the president thinks you are. It will. Social Security was developed as a way to catch people that had fallen through the cracks of a society that no longer values people with empty wallets and no ability to earn money. Any attempt to reform Social Security must still address this problem. The president plan fails to do this. It breaks the promise of Social Security. It will bring back the problem that the system was originally designed to fix. So why bother? Why is he doing it? Because it will put us at the mercy of the stock market. It will align our own financial health with that of the major stockholders. We will be so freakin' scared that the market will crash that we will accept any policy that benefits the market, even ones that put our own security and well being at risk. Environmental laws are bad for the market - get rid of them! Consumer protection laws are depressing stock prices - get rid of them! Major corporations are caught breaking the law - look the other way! In short, wholesale republicanism, the elevation of market interests over all else. Its already like this in many ways. There are already lots of people that vote to pretect their financial interests in the market to the detriment of society as a whole. People vote against their own interests because they fear the financial ramifications of challenging the market. Is it a deliberate strategy? According to a memo by Peter Wehner it is: For the first time in six decades, the Social Security battle is one we can win -- and in doing so, we can help transform the political and philosophical landscape of the country. We have it within our grasp to move away from dependency on government and toward giving greater power and responsibility to individuals. Read: Every man for himself. "If you're sick enough long enough, you're in deep trouble in our society" Poof.. there goes your personal retirement account. What's left? At the end of the day, we want to promote both an ownership society and advance the idea of limited government. It seems to me our plan will do so; the plan of some others won't. Whenever you hear the phrase "Ownership Society" you need to remember this sentence: "If you're sick enough long enough, you're in deep trouble in our society" Here's a great cartoon that expresses how I feel. |
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