When I was little my dad told me to forget the fear of God...as long as he was bigger than me, there was nothing ELSE to fear. By the time I was bigger than he was, we had reached an understanding. I knew right from wrong, I did what was right, and did it, not in fear but in the firm knowledge that I could not expect the same of others if I was unwilling to live right. Dad was a liberal, a secular humanist, and about as strong willed as any human I ever met. As I learned more about government and religion and power and leadership, I realized that they were all dependent on a single factor. UNITY.
Unity can be generated in any number of ways, and the single universal means to unity is doing the right thing. The right thing almost always involves doing what is best for others as well as yourself. That is where Public Health Police originates.
Covering your mouth when you cough or sneeze does YOU no good at all, but it certainly is good for the people around you. That's Public Health Policy. PAYING your insurance premiums does you not one iota of good unless or until you get sick. But every person in your insurance pool who is ALREADY sick uses the money you pay to cover their doctor or hospital bills. Basically that is what a public option system will do as well. The tax dollars, and the premiums in the public option will pay the medical bills of the people who participate. And, before you get all nervous about the tax costs, consider this fact. More than half, some studies say as much as 6 out of every ten dollars spent on health care in the USA is ALREADY being paid with your taxes. And consider this, the US spends more than twice as much on health care as other comparable nations. So, we are, at this moment, spending more TAX dollars on Health Care than MOST other nations spend in total. Those figures by the way originate with the World Health Organization, and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.
It is TIME to do something about this, and it is TIME to remember that since Theodore Roosevelt was President, A CENTURY AGO, the insurance and health care industry in this country have managed to prevent any kind of meaningful reform. Public Health care is a matter of justice for all, and that, friends is what we pledged ourselves to with the Pledge of Allegiance.
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Comments: 12
Oh well, I can trust you, you will be good and not tell anyone that EVERY SINGLE COIN AND PAPER BILL SAYS "UNITED STATES OF AMERICA" AND E PLURBUS UNIM. (FROM MANY ONE) The government is the maker of money. The government decides, ultimately, how much to circulate, and how to distribute it. WE ARE THE GOVERNMENT. If someone other than the government is controlling the money, ALL the government need do is CHANGE TO A DIFFERENT MONEY. Ever hear of a Confederate Dollar or a Continental?
If you want to call me stupid or ignorant, read some of my posts. On second thought, read the book I wrote about money. www.nopom.info
If you really think the government decides please explain why there all those lobbyists and all those campaign contributions from special interests.
We get to vote but we are not the government. If we were we would already have a good health care plan, no bailouts on Wall Street (none would be needed), and we would not be at war in the Middle East.
The article was posted a few minutes earlier, but it had been about 90% finished when I went out to that meeting.
Relax. I don't take offense easily. I just want my ideas rationally considered as they actually are rather than some half baked, stereotyped version of something I never wrote at all.
I really would like it if you would read my novel. It has ideas that I really think every thinking person should consider.
Next problem with utopia, there is no incentive to make an effort. If everyone has everything they need, no one will produce what everyone needs. I call it the Henny Penny Conundrum.
Why should I relax, I did, in fact, respond to you in a totally irrational manner. I don't do that often, but i put my foot in it this time. Please, re read what you posted, and what I posted in response. Can you find ANYTHING in that response that is responsive to what you said? I can't. The ONLY connection is Money, and in this case the connection is about as week as a starving kitten relative to a Healthy Bengal Tiger.
Sorry, but when I screw up this badly I GET UPTIGHT. I am aging, and I am definitely concerned about senility, and that REACTION to you was about as bad as my grandfather pinching my sister because the dog was asleep.
I feel fine. I hope you feel better now as well.
I am surprised that you think my system a utopia. It is merely an improvement. Of course, it is a major improvement but there will always be problems. I don't think people will ever be perfect.
If you take the time to read the novel or even to read the posts I have provided here on Gather about my system you will find that I have a post which points out that this system is not a utopia.
Karl, do you think people work and strive only to survive? You must know some people who work for the love of what they do. (I am one of those.) You may know some people who work for a better standard of living. I think many people work from greed. Others work to show that they are better than most other people. Some people work to attract women. There are many reasons to work besides mere survival.
Also, if you are a person who works only to survive, perhaps you could arrange to be put in jail. You don't have to work there. You can just lie around all day doing nothing. You get food, clothes, shelter, and medical care without having to work at all. They will actually keep you alive without your working. Yet few people voluntarily choose that life.
So I suggest that if people are rewarded for working with luxuries and status and interesting things of their own choice to do that they will work and be very productive. Perhaps you disagree.
"It's real simple, honey. All you have to do is the next right thing."
I now hold that truism close to home and heart. Sharon is wonderfilled, because she does just that...the next right thing. There are two "tech colleges" behind our office. Kids ride the bus daily, to get a good technical education that will help them in life. They wait at the bus stop in the snow, in the rain, in the heat. I once stopped to give a group my umbrella. They thought I was weird. Then I went and bought 10 umbrellas so I could do it again, should the opportunity present itself. Sure enough I went through those 10 umbrellas, and have since replaced them several times over.
I'm the "umbrella lady inna truck" to these beautiful kids. Somebody else's children.
They don't look at me weird any longer. They just grin, and say thanks and/or "bless you" because their books stay dry. Life can be pretty simple.
Perhaps our next new slogan -- our "flavor of the month" mentality should be that simple.
Let us all, simply, completely, and honestly, just do "the next right thing."
Can't go far wrong with that type of work.
Great article, Karl. I do simply adore your spirit.
Wilka