Resist If You Wish

Maybe this is Burning Man, unknown.  I saw the pic and it needed an inscription.

A general pessimism is inevitable with conservatives relentlessly trying to destroy everything in sight.  One challenged that this morning so we asked if the GOP is not trying to destroy the Affordable Care Act, Social Security, Medicare, Postal Service, etc. etc.  The response was 'do you want America to become a welfare state and end up like Greece?'

Well ...

The only content to the above is the tacit admission that it is the GOP's intention to destroy those programs but the fact of it is they have been trying ever since the 1940's and you see the bird is still standing.   In fact, it's stronger than it ever was and when it burns it will be magnificent.

The waste of it is the unfortunate aspect as the GOP is clear in its destructiveness but it hardly ever offers anything of any substance as an alternative.  If there's something better than the Affordable Care Act then roll it out for review such that it can be debated purposefully rather than the endlessly obstructive measures which are taken today.  The GOP has tried to repeal the ACA at least fifty times and demonstrated nothing so much as stubbornness and incompetence.

Here at the Rockhouse, we believe the Affordable Care Act is a complete waste of paper and ink but any mention of the alternative is met with screams from the GOP that it's socialism and a demon from Satan.  In fact, it's all socialism as the first job of the tribe is keeping the tribe alive.  The individual can't afford a personal x-ray machine so, what do you know, the state buys lots of them.

(Ed:  those are private purchases)

Some are and some aren't.  It makes no difference as it all comes out of the same general pot.  Keeping the tribe alive costs 'x' amount of dollars for any given year and the only useful function served by any of the insurance companies is in the compilation of actuarial tables which have become fairly accurate for predicting those costs.

Where the GOP goes berserk is in chucking the insurance companies for anything more than that function.  Once it's known how much medicine will cost the country for the year, you know how much the tax has to be so pay it and be done with it.

That sure is some extreme socialism when the people in the capitalist model who actually do the work are the ones who get paid and the parasites in the middle get cut out of it.  Insurance against something we know we will happen is so aggressively stupid we have no word.

Ten thousand Americans will have heart attacks this year.  We know that before the year even starts so what's it likely to cost to deal with that in the best way possible.  The estimation of cost is important.  The estimation of risk is a farce and an extremely expensive one.  It doesn't matter who has the heart attack as the treatment is presumably the same for anyone or this society is even sicker than it seems already.

The model I suggest really will work and you know that because it's simple.  It will really piss off the insurance companies but society owes them nothing.  They're just businesses and they come and go.  The GOP isn't fighting for better medicine, it's fighting to keep companies the country doesn't need.  It's one of the largest examples of corporate welfare in the system.