US health-care, a showcase of free-market failure
One of the problems with America is that EVERYTHING is for profit. Some services like health, public schools, and prisons should be provided by the state. There is simply no other way. Trickle-down economics and the invisible hand of the infallible free market does not work here (not to mention that it's bullshit).
The US has inferior healthcare that delivers inferior health for 3 times the price of other systems. No one wants to admit it. Everyone wants to make money by exploiting the weak, sick and elderly. FOX tells the ignorant that it is great and they believe it. It is a sad spectacle.
And this extends to other spheres of social life. The US healthcare is one of the most expensive in the world, sure. So much for market efficiencies. But take a look at schools. Public schools serve crap lunches to kids because big corporations lobby hard for these contracts. So your kid's health is secondary to corporate profits. The prison system is overflowing because it pays to have lots of people in jail. It's good for business. It seems that private corporations are extremely good at billing the government insane amounts of money for the crappy services they provide. What should operate as a free market economy is lost to private networks and good old cronyism - because after all, it's just taxpayers' money!
Corporate greed cannot come before the well-being of your citizens. This will only weaken the entire society over time. It was Mahatma Ghandi who said "A nation's greatness is measured by how it treats its weakest members". And it's true. Because whenever the social and economic gaps in a society widen beyond a certain critical point, major upheaval follows.
But of course politicians don't care about that. As long as they keep filling their pockets, it's all birds and roses.
The US has inferior healthcare that delivers inferior health for 3 times the price of other systems. No one wants to admit it. Everyone wants to make money by exploiting the weak, sick and elderly. FOX tells the ignorant that it is great and they believe it. It is a sad spectacle.
And this extends to other spheres of social life. The US healthcare is one of the most expensive in the world, sure. So much for market efficiencies. But take a look at schools. Public schools serve crap lunches to kids because big corporations lobby hard for these contracts. So your kid's health is secondary to corporate profits. The prison system is overflowing because it pays to have lots of people in jail. It's good for business. It seems that private corporations are extremely good at billing the government insane amounts of money for the crappy services they provide. What should operate as a free market economy is lost to private networks and good old cronyism - because after all, it's just taxpayers' money!
Corporate greed cannot come before the well-being of your citizens. This will only weaken the entire society over time. It was Mahatma Ghandi who said "A nation's greatness is measured by how it treats its weakest members". And it's true. Because whenever the social and economic gaps in a society widen beyond a certain critical point, major upheaval follows.
But of course politicians don't care about that. As long as they keep filling their pockets, it's all birds and roses.