I believe in a Universal Health Care System ... because I don..t want to live
in a society where I have to avoid walking or driving through the large chunks of it that have been left out of the prosperity.
We ghettoise our own countries and simplify the debate down to a question of Winners and Losers.
The upshot being that it..s the losers own fault. I don..t know if that is true or not
but I do know that I don..t like having to step over homeless people when I walk into the mall with my daughter. It..s not a good look.
My ex and I just payed a few thousand dollars for a back(orthotic) brace for our daughter.
We could have waited 6 months for one through the public health care system but she needed it now ... so we payed.
But I still don..t mind paying an extra couple of cents in each of my tax dollars
to provide basic healthcare for everybody, including myself and my family.
The same goes for a Public Education system that works.
I recently saw figures showing the decline in funding for the public school system in Australia from 1996 - 2008.
(The years that the conservatives/John Howard/ were in power)
It was a long term, calculated hatchet job.
And if they had their way there would be a permanent under-educated underclass,
just like the ..good old days...
F#@K that !
Our parents and grandparents worked hard, payed their taxes in the belief that they were taking part in in an ongoing process.
That is, the development of a society where everyone is basically equal.
Some people are always going to be more equal than others .. and I can live with that
but I don..t have to contribute to making the situation worse than it is.
Business takes care of business ..
which is why we elect officials to make sure that our societies do their best
to cater to the basic needs of everyone.
When our elected officials are in the pockets of Big Business (ie. Private Health Insurance companies)
... we are in deep, deep shit.
When multi millionaire Rock Stars scalp their own tickets (Bon Jovi and others)
it makes a mockery of this beautiful thing called music ... and the trust that exists between an Artist and his/her audience.
(And I am glad that Mr Springsteen spoke up about this)
And don..t get me started on ..youth marketers... The ones that create targeted subliminal campaigns aimed at 2-3 year olds.
They call them ..future potential consumers... I call them CHILDREN.
We might deserve this sorry state of affairs because we and our legislators rolled over
for all of these low-lifes but our children deserve better.
mw