I want to get something officially out there.
I am furious. I am angry at my country, outraged at the people who run it, and appalled at some of the citizens there who have voting power. The country is disgusting. There, I said it. Every new thing I hear about, every new policy—whether it’s lowering the age that a child can be tried as an adult (and therefore executed) to fourteen; or continuing our pathetic excuse for a health system that kills, yes MURDERS, thousands of people a year—everything makes me sick to my stomach, everything lowers my opinion of humanity, everything makes me homicidal and burning with rage. When I have my bad days—when I think maybe the consequences of our destruction of the environment are completely deserved, or when I wish that some asteroid would come down and wipe out humanity—the United States of America is why. No, I don’t have to go look at some third world country with a despotic government. Why should I, when I can look at my own country and watch it rotting in the cesspools of shit that are our ignorant, greedy, whiny masses of right-wing psychos…who care more about their money than ABSOLUTELY ANYTHING ELSE IN THE WORLD, to the point where they refuse to listen to reason, even if listening to reason means they would save money?!!!
Let me explain: The United States has one of the worst health care systems in the first world. It has THE MOST EXPENSIVE health care system in the entire world. And, shockingly, the most privatized health care system in the first world…wow, what a coincidence! Here’s some painful logic for you: Give multi-billion dollar corporations free reign over people’s health and they will reap an unimaginable profit while not providing what they’re supposed to provide: you know, HEALTH. Give the government control over health care and…denial of care? NOPE. Death panels? NOPE. Fewer deaths from lack of coverage? YES!
I moved from the US to New Zealand, a country with universal health care, and that’s one of the reasons. Every day, especially now, I thank the sweet fucking mother of holy Christ that I am not in that sorry-ass, world’s-most-powerful-third-world-nation-pretending-to-be-an-industrialised country. I no longer have to pay $700 for a pregnancy test (as I once did in New Jersey). I no longer have to pay $2000 for a blood and urine test (as I once did because my doctor was a paranoid prick who was covering his ass). I no longer have to worry about getting a job that has health care, in an economy where the ratio of job-seekers to job positions is 6 to 1!
Any time I have a fever, or break a limb, or anything else, I call up my doctor, get an appointment usually the next day, and pay $16. If I get a blood test, it’s free. Urine test, free. X-ray, free. Gyno exam, surgery, FREE. If I’m dying of a horrible infection, I can rest assured that I will be given proper treatment regardless of my insurance or lack thereof, and will not be charged a cent for it.
But socialism is bad, right? First of all, universal health care is not socialism, not even close, so get your head out of your ass, pull all the other stuff you stuck up there out as well, and embrace the shocking world of REALITY. Second of all, Cuba (you know, a socialist country?) is considered a third world nation for the simple fact that it is not capitalist and its GDP is not high enough, but when it comes to the Human Deveopment Index, the index used by the UN to rate human welfare, Cuba is better than us.
They have lower infant mortality rates, higher literacy, lower death rate, higher %GDP education expenditures (cause they DON’T thrive on ignorance), almost NONEXISTENT unemployment (that’s right, that means that the people there aren’t lazy at all, they’re working despite the fact that they get free food, housing, education, and healthcare), and MUCH lower public debt %GDP.
So, perhaps we should start changing our priorities with regards to socialist/not-socialist policies considering that socialist policies are better for people and their countries hands-down. If you have any thought whatsoever that I’m referring to the USSR, get off my blog right now, the USSR was not socialist and certainly didn’t illustrate what socialist policies could do.
People are so worried that healthcare reform will be socialist, that they don’t care that people are dying during this debate, that insurance companies are raking in record profits that a government couldn’t possibly make (not to mention governments, as we see right now, are actually responsive to their constituents), and, most importantly, that right-wing lunatics are suckers and perfect puppets of the corporate elite.
Add to that the fact that we have one of the highest prison populations in the world, we are the only industrialised nation that still practices capital punishment, and our ignorance regarding science and evolution are second only to TURKEY, and anyone with a brain should be shitting their pants right now trying to leave the country. Try to find a system with better health care.
Hey, I hear Mexico is taking immigrants.
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