Reply #25: Part of the problem is the cultural hostility to social programs... [View All]

Logical solutions, such as yours, have to overcome both inherent resistance to the specific proposal -- e.g., pot's dangerous, pot's addictive, pot endangers productivity, pot's a major cause of lung cancer, and the rest of the backlash nonsense everyone's heard by now -- and the systemic, almost uniquely American trait of willfully fucking over the have-nots simply because we can, and because they're to blame for their own situation, and because economic Darwinism (Spencerian feel-good bullshit for the rich) has decreed that the fittest have enough money to pay for their own needs and how dare anyone ask for them to cover the less fortunate.

Such is the result of our christian culture, where loving one's neighbor is soooo First Century and now it's all about rugged individualism and Ayn Rand and standing on one's own two feet and all that other right wing horseshit used to keep the under classes wallowing in guilt and misery at their own perceived failings.


Kinda like this guy:

"To those of you who support socialized medicine: 'Because I live here I should get healthcare for nothing.' Please. The rich have better houses, better cars, better vacations because they can afford them. Why shouldn't their healthcare be better too? Contrary to the apparently presumed axiom, healthcare is not a guaranteed right.

"And the rich are getting tired of picking up the tab. Learn how to support yourself."

Posted by: Tired of paying for you | July 29, 2007 at 01:32 PM

The poor, overburdened rich. My heart bleeds. Miserable, selfish republican bastard.

More responses, most of which are 180 degrees out from the above:

http://buffalonews.typepad.com/inside_the_news/2007/07/no-simple-solut.html


Or this guy:

"Making it possible for individuals to own their health-insurance policies themselves, rather than getting them through their companies, would solve the problem. It would also reduce the political momentum behind socialized medicine.

"Republicans should ... propose market reforms that make insurance more affordable and portable. If such reforms are implemented, more people will have insurance."

Fucking dinosaur. Complete article here: http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=ZWFkZDBlNjk3YjFhMDE1MWVlODc5NGM4MmQ4MmRhMTM=


Or this guy:

http://www.intellectualconservative.com/article3186.html

"Do you really want the government that gave us the public school system to provide our health care?" he asks. Which is one of the false phantoms industry apologists use to spread fear and doubt about anything progressive involving a government program. Basically, it's the anti-tax crowd all dressed up as defenders of the American way of screwing the poor and lower classes.

And no, I don't want the current government to do anything but get the fuck out of the white house and into the nearest maximum security prison, thank you. However, I think universal public education is a commendable goal, including all the way through college and grad school if achievement warrants it. I readily concede that the current state of public education is just awful, but it's nothing that can't be fixed by throwing a few hundred billion at the problem. Unfortunately, that's only an acceptable solution when committing mass murder overseas for control of oil reserves, not for funding programs that actually do people some fucking good for a change.

Moreover, these elitist bastards want a dull, uninformed, complacent society filled with non-critical consumers who will fall for any pitch if it's wrapped up in enough glitz and glamor and delivered by the celebrity du jour. Anything else is un-American.


So that's the other part of the problem and sensible, easily-implemented solutions such as you propose die in the narrow confines of the right wing mind -- if that's not an oxymoron.


wp


Edited to add yet another selfish prick to the quote list above.