Ever since I put this as my signature on e-mail, I've gotten comments and questions about why I put it there. BTW, not all the comments were polite. This piece is a defense against charges that I am a communist, a fascist, an Islamist or simply anti-American.
I've asked everyone who's questioned the signature to come up with one thing in our society that ISN'T for sale and I've been met with large amounts of silence. One person replied, "love" and this seemed reasonable until I suggested that this meant no one marries for money - and this was obviously the wrong thing to say because the person I was speaking with hung up the phone. I was, however, gratified that no one even suggested our government since even the most trollish of people don't think our respresentatives put the common good ahead of personal or political gain as reflected in campaign contributions. Education is clearly for sale unless you can tell me with a straight face that all kids in this country get an equal shot at a good education. Health? Perhaps you've read that many drugs, including some necessary to support life, are in short supply because they've gone off patent and are in the public domain - which means the drug companies can't make as much money from them and so have discontinued their production.
The last straws, of course, were those who suggested justice as an unpurchasable commodity. This might have been before four San Francisco police, accompanied by two employees of Apple Corporation, invaded a citizen's home without a warrant in order to look for a lost iPhone prototype, which was not found. If a typical citizen tried that, I wonder what the outcome would have been. And let's not talk about high-priced lawyers.
Speaking of justice, does anyone seriously think that money doesn't play a part with folks like Lindsay Lohan, Charlie Sheen or any number of professional (oops, I mean college) athletes who seem to think the law is for "the little people," as Leona Helmsley called them? Is it a coincidence that the great majority of inmates in our prisons are poor or is it just that the poor are fundamantally morally inferior to the people at the top of the income ladder? Everyone knows wealthy people don't do drugs or mess with minors. Ask Roman Polanski. Prostitution? That's obviously something the rich don't do. They marry a number of times and throw exclusive parties in between.
We've mentioned patented drugs, but how about general medical care? Does money have anything to do with how long people live or how well? Why are there so many more doctors per capita in areas with very high incomes? Could it be that the system is rigged a little? Making a doctor go into hock for a couple of hundred grand is a great motivation for that doctor to look for places he can make the most money. Hint: this is not in the poor part of town.
The pat answer for this is that we have to allow free enterprise and "the market" to regulate our way of life. Since Cuba provides free education through medical school and since Cuba is a communist state, the thinking is that providing free medical training is communistic. Never mind that Denmark has a higher life expectancy than we do and its people register a higher level of happiness in life. Denmark is socialist!!!!!! Therefore what they do must be wrong. Look at their taxes!! The fact that most Danes think not having to worry about medical expenses, schooling or elder care might be worth the money has nothing to do with it. It's socialistic!!
O.K. I'm waiting for some blistering replies.
Saturday, September 03, 2011
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