I was watching a Ben Shapiro short where he skewers a leftist who feels like medical care, food and housing should be free (for him) because America is such a rich country.
I cannot compete with Shapiro. He is in a league all of his own.
But I can play a riff or two from my own perspective. What if I DID agree that this Leftist was entitled to a month's worth of food. What would that look like?
One approach would be to look at the Communist Nation-State closest to the US (carefully worded to disqualify California and Blue-Hive cities) and see what they give THEIR citizens.
According to the ever-helpful Wikipedia, Cuba allowed Cuban citizens to purchase 12 pounds of carbs and 15 pounds of starchy vegetables per month at a discount. The purchaser still needed money and he needed ration coupons. That still leaves a 30,000 Calorie deficit per month and if you are caught defrauding the system you end up in a Cuban prison.
Ok, ok. The Leftist would say "Cuba is a poor country. You can do better than that.
My counter-offer
What if I said that for healthcare you could walk into the Emergency Room of any Inner-City hospital and demand healthcare and they could not refuse you? In fact, they WOULD NOT refuse you.
What if I said you could go into any consignment shop on their "freebie day" and ask for running shoes so you would not NEED as much healthcare?
What if, because I am dripping with compassion for your hide, that I offered you 20 pounds of cornmeal, 20 pounds of potatoes, five pounds of onions, five pounds of bacon grease, and 32 ounces of molasses a month? The only caveat is that if you waste any of it you owe me the cost of the entire year's supply and a small management fee of $120 an hour...but only if you waste any of it.
That is what my father and maternal grandmother survived on during the first Depression. Oh, and they had to pay for it. I am offering it to you for free. I know that history is probably not your strong suit. The first Depression lasted from 1929 until 1941. That would be twelve years. My dad was four when it started and 16 when it ended. His dad died in 1936.
And for housing, what if I make arrangements at the local homeless shelter? They have a few rules, though. You cannot be high or drunk when you show up. They don't have any place for you to secure your iPhone or other electronic goodies. They have a prayer service. They don't tolerate fighting or cussing. They lock the doors at 8:00PM, either you are in or you are out.
So, Bunkie, what I am getting at is that all of these "free" things you are demanding pretty much exist in one form or another. The catch is that you want to be a worthless leach and still have the illusion of dignity. You want them delivered to you with no stigma or effort on your part.
You sir, in your own elegant way, hit the nail on the head.
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ERJ, I will go one further: all of the ingredients you offer must be prepared into some meal form. I suspect the individuals in question are expecting ready to eat meals prepared for them, not the ingredients.
ReplyDeletePerhaps I should just run an IV into their arm.
DeleteI've got just the thing for that IV.
DeleteThanks to Reagan signing the COBRA legislation in 1986 which included the EMTALA provision ANYONE can walk into ANY Emergency Room in America and receive treatment for their claimed illness or injury without having to provide any proof of insurance or payment up front. And the hospital CANNOT LEGALLY TURN THEM AWAY. And MILLIONS of people do exactly that every year. THAT is one of the main reasons why healthcare is so expensive. Because hospitals MUST make a profit somewhere to cover the costs of FREE care given in ER's they raise the costs charged to insured and payers who DO have assets to pay to insane levels.
ReplyDeleteHave an ER doc friend who worked in a predominate Black community. Come Saturday night the er would flood with people who had "nebulous" pain only certain drugs could help. When he refused anything other than aspirin he was Loudly called a racist and they were going to report him to Sharpton or Jackson. He had business cards with a name of each on the front and back with their contact emails and business phones. Said the looks on their faces were priceless when given the card.
Delete[I am not a lawyer nor regulatory expert, but my understanding as a nurse]
DeleteThere is a technical wrinkle to that. If the ER provider has completed a "medical screening exam", including whatever tests needed, to determine whether a condition exists that requires emergency treatment; one can halt care and bring up the discussion of treatment. For non-emergent conditions, care, prescriptions, etc. are not required to be completed.
The real world application is MUCH more challenging than this simple description, though I am aware it has been attempted.
"... bring up the discussion of payment..." -- not treatment
DeleteAnd I'd bet you would be really mean and tell them they can't get any new tattoos or SUVs either and stay on the program,. ---ken
ReplyDeleteYep.
DeleteGENERIC brand cigarettes only.
Hell, I rolled my own all through college. Marlboros were reserved for Friday and Saturday nights only, in case a young lady wanted one, lol.
If some drunken dude came up at the end of the night to bum a smoke, you could always tell the casual smokers who only puffed one when they were drunk, I'd light up one of my hand rolled non-filtered ones and hand it to him. Sucker would almost always end up puking before he finished it, lol.
Lol, I think your last 2 sentences nail it.
ReplyDeleteA tick would have worked for a literary foil as well... they reproduce after feeding.
Its funny reading the comments pointing to the causes. I remember food stamp coupons, and when they started shipping ATM style cards for food stamp recipients: the argument being food stamps were embarassing for the user.
ReplyDeleteStated as if it wasn't a feature.
Thats really whats broken these days (in my opinion).
BOY, I wish there was a book or something somewheres that talks about all that.... maybe a really old one not caught up in modern politics. Probably just wishful thinking, carry on.
(Sarcasm off)
In depression era my mother lived with her brothers and Croat immigrant parents in a mixed "white ethnic" neighborhood (as opposed to primarily "Polish" or "Irish" or etc).
ReplyDeleteThe mother of neighbor family suddenly died leaving the father with 3 teen/tween kids. Catholic Charities would come and deliver soup and bread to feed the kids while the father scrounged looking for work in addition to his job at Int'l Harvester. IH had a "floating" amount of work. They kept almost all workers throughout the Depression but at reduced hours. Some weeks you might work 2 or 3 days while the next week you might work 3 or 4 days. But at least your employment was there.
The father was grateful and appreciated the food for his kids. But he had one request of the ladies......would they add more salt to the soup. When asked if the taste was "off", the father replied if the soup was saltier then the kids would drink more water to fill their stomachs so they wouldn't feel so hungry
Upon learning of that story my grand mother broke down in tears.
The following year the father found work farther away and was moving. The eldest son was best friends with my mother's older brother and they were in their last year of high school. The son asked my grandparents if he could live with them until high school graduation. They said yes. My grandfather also worked at IH. Work hours and money were still tight but they took him in.
The young man joined the Army Air Corp a couple of years later in early part of WWII.
His bomber was shot down over Germany with loss of all souls.
Our family still has the souvenir head scarf he sent my grandmother from his training station just before deployment to England.
That story and life still make eyes water in our family
I would quibble that the United States is not a rich country. Many of its citizens are rich. Many are not. The nation itself is deep in financial debt, and sinking faster. Many of the valuable resources on public lands are merely held by the national or state governments in trust. For the good of all, not just the poor.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of the collective wealth of a population as the nation's wealth is a distinctly Marxist kind of thought process. As is using that concept to justify levels of social spending.
The only way that a nation's government can truly generate wealth is by military conquest and economic looting of other countries. Otherwise, it is merely redistributing the private wealth of its citizens.
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