Healthcare Debate
Posted on January 10th, 2010 in life
There’s a fundamental flaw in this country with how wage, healthcare and cost of living are thought of, which becomes evident whenever we start having ‘debates’ over these issues.
We tend to forget that there is always going to be a bottom rung in the labor market. There are always going to be cleaners, maids, farmhands and busboys – and not because there are always going to be people too stupid or too lazy to do any better. These low level jobs are among many at the foundation of our society’s infrastructure. Without them our society would break down from the bottom up.
So it baffles me that there should be a debate whether these people should get health care (that they clearly can’t afford on their own) or be able to support themselves through the wages that they earn.That these aren’t considered just human rights in themselves is just astounding.
The problem with the rags to riches myth is that it presupposes those two extremes, and by their nature there’s always going to be many of one and very few of the other. A polarized society, which is bottom-heavy in production, and top-heavy in wealth.
This is partly why I got tired of the debate. The fundamentals just didn’t make sense to me. Taxing a bit more for health care for everyone seems like a no-brainer to me. And the common excuse for not reworking the insurance field because lots of people would lose their jobs… well, that logic is on par with saying “well, we have to have war, because otherwise our soldiers would be out of jobs; we shouldn’t try to prevent crime, because all our prison workers would go out of a job!” When a system is broken, you fix it, even if it means taking it apart first.
Not that I think that’s going to happen in this case. Too much money and lobbying power. But a bit of duct-tape is better than nothing.
(As an aside – I used to think duct-tape was spelled “duck-tape”.)
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