The U.S. is the richest country on terra firma. With a population of roughly 301,139,947 people (July 07 est), we spend over 1.9 trillion dollars a year in health care. This is more than any other country on the face of the planet and in many cases quite a few countries put together. And yet, 43.3 million of us are uninsured of 1/4 are children (9.3 million). In other words, 15% of our population does not have any health insurance. Nothing. Nada. Zip. Where does the 1.9 trillion dollars go? Surely, we could fund medical care for the entire country off of 1.9 trillion dollars...if we wanted to. You are probably asking yourself where am I going with this. And, yes, I'm going there. Socialized medicine. Can you hear them? Those big bad footsteps of socialism and communism creeping up behind me. Please. Socialized medicine has nothing to do with government in the sense of ruling the people and everything to do with keeping this nation healthy and right side up. We have been so inundated with paid-off government officials telling us how big and bad socialized medicine is and why it won't work. But, hey, I have news for you. The current system in place is only really being very successful at doing one thing: making a few people very, very, very rich. Our medicine system is crippled by greed and greed alone. We as a nation have decided that making money is more important that keeping people healthy.
Question: How do you keep people oppressed? Answer: You make sure they are uneducated, poor, you keep fear in their hearts, then you send them spirally downward chasing a fanasty without a parachute. Anybody around here taken notice of our education system issues? Question: How much do we pay teachers? I'm not even going to bother answering this one. We can keep going if you like, as I only covered two of the issues surrounding power, corruption, and greed.
We have allowed our nation to become what it is. It is what it is, nothing more, nothing less. We have allowed ourselve to be ruled not by the people but rather by greed of the few. Where will it stop? The other day I read that there is pilot project out there to actually pay students to go to school. I think this is quite the wonderful idea. Let's just feed right into the greed. Get them started early on life. What happen to success in life meaning more than your salary?
Our country is missing idealism. We are missing the big picture, the goal for all of us and not just some of us. No matter how much a politician throws it in your face in an effort to strike fear in your heart, evil is not solely found in some far off land, in the mind of some poor excuse for a human being. Sadly, it unfortunately can be much, much closer. As much as we should rid the world of those evil men found in lands far, far away, we should also be mind of the potential in each and everyone of us. It could be argued that the act of not doing could be just as destructive. So, in closing, I ask: When will it stop? When will stop not caring about our fellow man?
