It has to be said over and over, LOUDLY, that the struggle to pay for and provide care to loved ones who are “dependent” on you is not a personal failure, doesn't have to be a struggle, and IS NOT as much of a struggle in other countries that have created nationalized systems of support through legislation.
Americans, who pride themselves on independence and anti-socialism, do not actually want to struggle to meet their basic needs. We have just been conditioned to believe that there is no alternative to struggling except to become rich enough to no longer struggle; we've been conditioned to believe that being “unable to afford” basic amenities like childcare, eldercare, and housing is our own shortcoming; we have been conditioned to believe that we must carry it all on our own backs, unrelieved and unaided. This is patently false. We struggle because the stigma of socialism has been disingenuously linked with federal paid family medical leave and other social support programs subsidized by government.
Who is benefiting from this mindset? Wealthy capitalists. The economy does not actually support bootstrap wealth accumulation. It supports capitalistic exploitation of human labor that costs less than living expenses. The human laborers are convinced to keep working for wages below their costs of living because they're told that hard work is the key to getting out of poverty, eventually.
The fact is that the only way to get straight capital wealth is to invest large amounts of money in stock and not “work” at all. But if everyone did this, who would run the literal machines of commerce; the bulldozers and combines and power looms, the tractor trailers and cranes? The whole system is carried on the principle that people mistake purposely fabricated inequity for temporary poverty.
We have been raised on the Horatio Alger mythology and a person hears it enough, by the time they are 7 years old, they believe all that! 😬💩💩💩💩💩 especially the MAGAS that I know. ( mostly Whites)
You got that right! We have lived in an economic system that is set up to reward money hoarding by a rich few instead of being set up to benefit the common good. Changing our approach means opposing those with lots of money and the power that comes with lots of money, but we have to keep working to rescue our capitalist system from the power mongers. Thank you for tackling it.
A much more progressive income tax system as well as wealth taxes, higher estate & inheritance taxes, taxes on greenhouse gases, luxury taxes, closing tax loopholes, etc. are some ways to finally start narrowing the huge wealth (& power) gap. Doing this smartly can decrease taxes paid by the majority of Americans while increasing overall government revenue, leaving more in the pockets of lower earners for spending money to patronize small businesses & boost the local economy.
It would also pay for Single Payer Insurance , Decent Social Security benefits, public pre-school and a host of other things that make individuals, families and whole states healthier
Really important issue. And universal single payer health care, improved Medicare for All, is an important part of the solution. Also, it’s important to remind ourselves that Americans are no longer living longer. With 800 of us dying a day from the myriad effects of engineered poverty, the life span is shrinking. https://publichealth.jhu.edu/2022/life-expectancy-is-declining-in-the-us
While all the other so-called "advanced" nations have had universal healthcare since way back in the previous century, as well as numerous not so "advanced" or "developed" nations, including Cuba, Costa Rica & Thailand (yes, Cuba has better healthcare than the US as well as longer lifespans, how about that?). Medicare coverage doesn't even include hearing, vision or dental, 3 key health concerns for the elderly. Yet we pay twice as much as these other countries, which goes to show how poor & inefficient our healthcare system is, all to prioritize profits for hospitals, insurance companies & pharmaceutical companies. We also prioritize the profits of dirty fossil fuel corporations & their privilege of plundering our land & polluting our air & water, causing & exacerbating health problems for millions of Americans all for their profit above the health & welfare of the public.
Not only is our healthcare dysfunction harming those in the "sandwich" situation, having to take care of & pay for the health of their parents as well as their children, but also to people entering their golden years without anyone to help them out, & having to pay for & take care of themselves on their own. It's a form of cruelty to our citizens that has been wrought by the collusion of corporations with government (particularly the Republican/corporatist kind). Same with housing, by the way.
Mr Rankin, you are most certainly right to call the USA a "so-called 'advanced' nation." I invariably use the term "American 'health care,'" for the same reasons that you have specified. I also join you in concluding it is dysfunctional, perhaps at best. It is now an industry, the main purpose of which is to transfer money from a variety of places to providers and vendors.
May I make a request of you (and I don't complain if you don't respond to my request)? I have started a Substack series I call "The Doctor Is...In." Would you consider giving me your thoughts about the posts there? I think there are about four of them so far. If you don't, it's OK. I just can't tell if I'm talking to anyone other than myself, and the echo chamber is a little disconcerting. If you're willing, and you prefer, you can contact me directly at fredjonasmd@gmail.com
Twice as much if we are lucky. Many times it is much more than that. I am hoping that we will wake up and do what is right by our citizens, but I see little change to n the horizon. The poor are left to suffer while the rich exploit them. Sad, indeed. Let us begin to make reforms which will help all people.
Qasim, I am on the verge of tears reading this. I've been a family caregiver and family caregiver advocate for years now. It's draining. And it always just seems like nobody is listening. Like everybody is too busy shrugging their shoulders to be bothered with the sandwich generation. Thank you for writing about this and partnering with Caring Across Generations.
Godspeed my friend. I empathize with your struggle. And be assured we're not letting up on our push to ensure healthcare is a human right. CAG is an excellent org doing critical work for this cause.
Boy, did you hit the nail on the head. I'm sorry for you, Huley Brown, HRL, and everyone else stuck in this place.
Your post described the US as industrialized, which it is, but not enough, regarding renewable energy sources, modernized, which has the same limitation, and doesn't say civilized, which we're not.
"The only industrialized nation on earth that doesn't guarantee universal paid family medical leave." The only one on earth. Somehow, everyone else gets it. But we don't. Now there's something to be proud of. Our imagined big accomplishment is giving tax breaks to people who have vastly more money and income than they could ever imagine what to do with.
Ms Sadowski, I'm sorry you, too, were in that place. I was luckier. My offspring were adults by the time my parents were old and needed care. And my father had made enough money that it could be provided without hands on from us.
You are most certainly right about the cause. It's why we don't live in a civilized country.
Thank you for understanding the sheer frrrrrustration that the rest of the world has with your country. . That stubborn refusal to undersstand that patriotism means loving the people who live there, in practical ways, and that its not shouting louder and dressing funny and spitting when you talk, and clinging to percived rights to kill each other. (Gun idolatry)
That is not patriotism. That is a ...(what is a polite term for wank?) And the rest of the world sees it for what it is, and begs America to grow up and be kind to your own.
You are bang on. Indistrialised is not civilised. But it can become civilised. And i honour the efforts of those who try.
A country is only as rich as how it treats its poor. Punishing the poor for being poor, by mekimg them even poorer, is pathetic. And a waste of the brilliant ideas, solutions and people that you already have.
Many of us have no trouble recognizing what's wrong with this country.
"Gun idolatry" isn't necessarily what you think it is. If you haven't seen Michael Moore's "Bowling for Columbine," I highly recommend it. It's about the foundation of the gun culture, which is fear, but fear and "imposter syndrome" are also what underpin the need the most obscenely well-endowed of us have to keep others (the least endowed, or the poor) oppressed. In fact, it's interesting that right at this moment, the most terrified of us claim to think immigrants represent various forms of danger, when all of us, except the Native Americans, are immigrants, or our forebears were, and statistics consistently show that immigrants are the least criminal, and most hard working, among us. But the rest are embarrassed by their undeserved riches, and tell themselves that danger lurks around every corner.
In 250 years, we've had some progress (and we had to fight for it, whether it was the Civil War or women's rights and voting), but we've also had to fight off pressure to regress. That's our big problem right now. And I still completely fail to understand why Donnie Trump is anyone's idea of a poster boy of strength and Americanism. He is precisely the opposite of both. As you say, in a decent and civilized country, with plenty of resources, we should have a generous ability and desire to elevate the poor. There are Americans today who resist giving school children and students lunch. We give them classrooms, teachers, and other necessities, but we want them hungry? In whose interest is that (apart from the people who resist paying taxes to contribute to the welfare of the country in which they choose to live)?
Just to give you one example of the nonsensical approach to it, there is a portion (relatively small minority) who claim to be antiabortion, because they claim to be "pro-life." I would venture to guess that every one of them favors capital punishment, the one and only goal of which is to kill someone, and get nothing in return, and they also all seem to be gun idolizers. Gun death in this country is the leading cause of death of minors of all ages and in suicides. And it's not only civilian ownership of guns. It's armed police, too. So they can't even get their agenda consistent and straight.
Apparently, we can. The most monied of us wouldn't have it any other way. It's just that if we were a civilized, real, and decent country, we wouldn't.
Not giving up, but I am setting realistic expectations. It will take a minor miracle to get this done. I am not sure we have enough willpower to do it. There also is the issue of corporate politicians who will absolutely do nothing. What we need is the kind of bravery that was necessary to pass the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act. I have read books about the passage of this legislation and it went across party lines. I wonder if there is that much courage left in the people of our political system.
I have been there. I am not sure why more isn’t being done to address this. It sure lets us know where the priorities are. My question is who is profiting off of the current system. I hope we will do better and I will support better. The fear I have is that it will continue to be an issue long after I have passed away.
Several of my coworkers who emigrated here years ago still return to their home countries to get hearing, vision and dental care. It's cheaper
It has to be said over and over, LOUDLY, that the struggle to pay for and provide care to loved ones who are “dependent” on you is not a personal failure, doesn't have to be a struggle, and IS NOT as much of a struggle in other countries that have created nationalized systems of support through legislation.
Americans, who pride themselves on independence and anti-socialism, do not actually want to struggle to meet their basic needs. We have just been conditioned to believe that there is no alternative to struggling except to become rich enough to no longer struggle; we've been conditioned to believe that being “unable to afford” basic amenities like childcare, eldercare, and housing is our own shortcoming; we have been conditioned to believe that we must carry it all on our own backs, unrelieved and unaided. This is patently false. We struggle because the stigma of socialism has been disingenuously linked with federal paid family medical leave and other social support programs subsidized by government.
Who is benefiting from this mindset? Wealthy capitalists. The economy does not actually support bootstrap wealth accumulation. It supports capitalistic exploitation of human labor that costs less than living expenses. The human laborers are convinced to keep working for wages below their costs of living because they're told that hard work is the key to getting out of poverty, eventually.
The fact is that the only way to get straight capital wealth is to invest large amounts of money in stock and not “work” at all. But if everyone did this, who would run the literal machines of commerce; the bulldozers and combines and power looms, the tractor trailers and cranes? The whole system is carried on the principle that people mistake purposely fabricated inequity for temporary poverty.
We have been raised on the Horatio Alger mythology and a person hears it enough, by the time they are 7 years old, they believe all that! 😬💩💩💩💩💩 especially the MAGAS that I know. ( mostly Whites)
Yes well articulated Carly.
You got that right! We have lived in an economic system that is set up to reward money hoarding by a rich few instead of being set up to benefit the common good. Changing our approach means opposing those with lots of money and the power that comes with lots of money, but we have to keep working to rescue our capitalist system from the power mongers. Thank you for tackling it.
A much more progressive income tax system as well as wealth taxes, higher estate & inheritance taxes, taxes on greenhouse gases, luxury taxes, closing tax loopholes, etc. are some ways to finally start narrowing the huge wealth (& power) gap. Doing this smartly can decrease taxes paid by the majority of Americans while increasing overall government revenue, leaving more in the pockets of lower earners for spending money to patronize small businesses & boost the local economy.
It would also pay for Single Payer Insurance , Decent Social Security benefits, public pre-school and a host of other things that make individuals, families and whole states healthier
,
Yes, we could do a lot of great things for ordinary people, especially those in need. But the filthy rich can't have that.
Thank you Betty, well said.
Really important issue. And universal single payer health care, improved Medicare for All, is an important part of the solution. Also, it’s important to remind ourselves that Americans are no longer living longer. With 800 of us dying a day from the myriad effects of engineered poverty, the life span is shrinking. https://publichealth.jhu.edu/2022/life-expectancy-is-declining-in-the-us
I'm 68. Many of my friends and colleagues who retired before 65 are already dead. Something is very wrong with this system 😕
Good point - life expectancy is dropping due to the lack of basic healthcare access.
Thanks for addressing this, Qasim!
While all the other so-called "advanced" nations have had universal healthcare since way back in the previous century, as well as numerous not so "advanced" or "developed" nations, including Cuba, Costa Rica & Thailand (yes, Cuba has better healthcare than the US as well as longer lifespans, how about that?). Medicare coverage doesn't even include hearing, vision or dental, 3 key health concerns for the elderly. Yet we pay twice as much as these other countries, which goes to show how poor & inefficient our healthcare system is, all to prioritize profits for hospitals, insurance companies & pharmaceutical companies. We also prioritize the profits of dirty fossil fuel corporations & their privilege of plundering our land & polluting our air & water, causing & exacerbating health problems for millions of Americans all for their profit above the health & welfare of the public.
Not only is our healthcare dysfunction harming those in the "sandwich" situation, having to take care of & pay for the health of their parents as well as their children, but also to people entering their golden years without anyone to help them out, & having to pay for & take care of themselves on their own. It's a form of cruelty to our citizens that has been wrought by the collusion of corporations with government (particularly the Republican/corporatist kind). Same with housing, by the way.
Mr Rankin, you are most certainly right to call the USA a "so-called 'advanced' nation." I invariably use the term "American 'health care,'" for the same reasons that you have specified. I also join you in concluding it is dysfunctional, perhaps at best. It is now an industry, the main purpose of which is to transfer money from a variety of places to providers and vendors.
May I make a request of you (and I don't complain if you don't respond to my request)? I have started a Substack series I call "The Doctor Is...In." Would you consider giving me your thoughts about the posts there? I think there are about four of them so far. If you don't, it's OK. I just can't tell if I'm talking to anyone other than myself, and the echo chamber is a little disconcerting. If you're willing, and you prefer, you can contact me directly at fredjonasmd@gmail.com
🙏 🙏 🙏
Truly an outrage. Well articulated.
Thanks, Qasim!
Twice as much if we are lucky. Many times it is much more than that. I am hoping that we will wake up and do what is right by our citizens, but I see little change to n the horizon. The poor are left to suffer while the rich exploit them. Sad, indeed. Let us begin to make reforms which will help all people.
Qasim, I am on the verge of tears reading this. I've been a family caregiver and family caregiver advocate for years now. It's draining. And it always just seems like nobody is listening. Like everybody is too busy shrugging their shoulders to be bothered with the sandwich generation. Thank you for writing about this and partnering with Caring Across Generations.
Godspeed my friend. I empathize with your struggle. And be assured we're not letting up on our push to ensure healthcare is a human right. CAG is an excellent org doing critical work for this cause.
Boy, did you hit the nail on the head. I'm sorry for you, Huley Brown, HRL, and everyone else stuck in this place.
Your post described the US as industrialized, which it is, but not enough, regarding renewable energy sources, modernized, which has the same limitation, and doesn't say civilized, which we're not.
"The only industrialized nation on earth that doesn't guarantee universal paid family medical leave." The only one on earth. Somehow, everyone else gets it. But we don't. Now there's something to be proud of. Our imagined big accomplishment is giving tax breaks to people who have vastly more money and income than they could ever imagine what to do with.
Have been in that place!😬😡 I think I know why We don't get it. The almighty 💵 dollar
Ms Sadowski, I'm sorry you, too, were in that place. I was luckier. My offspring were adults by the time my parents were old and needed care. And my father had made enough money that it could be provided without hands on from us.
You are most certainly right about the cause. It's why we don't live in a civilized country.
Thank you for understanding the sheer frrrrrustration that the rest of the world has with your country. . That stubborn refusal to undersstand that patriotism means loving the people who live there, in practical ways, and that its not shouting louder and dressing funny and spitting when you talk, and clinging to percived rights to kill each other. (Gun idolatry)
That is not patriotism. That is a ...(what is a polite term for wank?) And the rest of the world sees it for what it is, and begs America to grow up and be kind to your own.
You are bang on. Indistrialised is not civilised. But it can become civilised. And i honour the efforts of those who try.
A country is only as rich as how it treats its poor. Punishing the poor for being poor, by mekimg them even poorer, is pathetic. And a waste of the brilliant ideas, solutions and people that you already have.
E
Well said CHARITY BEGINS AT 🏡 HOME
Many of us have no trouble recognizing what's wrong with this country.
"Gun idolatry" isn't necessarily what you think it is. If you haven't seen Michael Moore's "Bowling for Columbine," I highly recommend it. It's about the foundation of the gun culture, which is fear, but fear and "imposter syndrome" are also what underpin the need the most obscenely well-endowed of us have to keep others (the least endowed, or the poor) oppressed. In fact, it's interesting that right at this moment, the most terrified of us claim to think immigrants represent various forms of danger, when all of us, except the Native Americans, are immigrants, or our forebears were, and statistics consistently show that immigrants are the least criminal, and most hard working, among us. But the rest are embarrassed by their undeserved riches, and tell themselves that danger lurks around every corner.
In 250 years, we've had some progress (and we had to fight for it, whether it was the Civil War or women's rights and voting), but we've also had to fight off pressure to regress. That's our big problem right now. And I still completely fail to understand why Donnie Trump is anyone's idea of a poster boy of strength and Americanism. He is precisely the opposite of both. As you say, in a decent and civilized country, with plenty of resources, we should have a generous ability and desire to elevate the poor. There are Americans today who resist giving school children and students lunch. We give them classrooms, teachers, and other necessities, but we want them hungry? In whose interest is that (apart from the people who resist paying taxes to contribute to the welfare of the country in which they choose to live)?
Just to give you one example of the nonsensical approach to it, there is a portion (relatively small minority) who claim to be antiabortion, because they claim to be "pro-life." I would venture to guess that every one of them favors capital punishment, the one and only goal of which is to kill someone, and get nothing in return, and they also all seem to be gun idolizers. Gun death in this country is the leading cause of death of minors of all ages and in suicides. And it's not only civilian ownership of guns. It's armed police, too. So they can't even get their agenda consistent and straight.
Truly incredible that we are still forcing our citizens to suffer this way. Unacceptable.
Apparently, we can. The most monied of us wouldn't have it any other way. It's just that if we were a civilized, real, and decent country, we wouldn't.
I agree, sir. We can but we will not.
Assuming that it wont be fixed, blocks solution thinking. Grieve the past and present as much as you need to, but please dont limit the future.
Many are working on fixing things. Dont give up.
Other countries have overcome their own stubborn stupidities. So can yours.
Dont give up.
Not giving up, but I am setting realistic expectations. It will take a minor miracle to get this done. I am not sure we have enough willpower to do it. There also is the issue of corporate politicians who will absolutely do nothing. What we need is the kind of bravery that was necessary to pass the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act. I have read books about the passage of this legislation and it went across party lines. I wonder if there is that much courage left in the people of our political system.
I have been there. I am not sure why more isn’t being done to address this. It sure lets us know where the priorities are. My question is who is profiting off of the current system. I hope we will do better and I will support better. The fear I have is that it will continue to be an issue long after I have passed away.
Me too
Who is profiting? Major corporations. Private equity firms. The top 1%. This is massively contributing to wealth and income inequality.
All the more reason to put a stop to this ASAP. I am with you on this.
💯 percent
I also assume venture capitalists are profiting as well.
Just like they are with housing.
Ah, to be a venture capitalist, & get morbidly rich off the suffering of so many Americans!
This is totally my life right now! Right in the middle of my elderly parents and teenage kids and trying to keep all the balls in the air. 🙃
Ditto. It's not easy, and it doesn't need to be like this at all.