The importance of money

[Sibling Chatty]

Make sure you have plenty.

If you don't, you get to be shoved around and neglected and mistreated--and MALTREATED--and then you die.

Had the Vet Med School let us bring Preston to them, he would have lived. Hell, had they even bothered to fax his records when I asked-- instead of my having to argue with them amout the unavailability of a fax, and no I will not be paying off the bill before I transfer the dog, what exactly do you not understand about bleeding out with diahhrea??

Had the second vet known about his previous history she'd have known more of what to do, but it wasn't even ever explained to ME (last time, at the $1,700 hospitalization) beyond "a tender tummy",then we'd have known that it was chronic gastroenteritis, and could have DONE something all along the way (there are treatments).

They may have all the big shiny hospital stuff, but I was having trouble paying off the remaining $2,000 of a $5,000 bill, so they wouldn't see my dog.

Wanna hear the human side??

My friends Michael and Denise are both ill. He needs a kidney/liver transplant; her orthopedic problems for being hit by a car that red a red light, plus some birth defect problems are severe. (The only doctor that will touch her, at Texas Orthopedic, estimates 4 surgeries over a two year period would get her about 60% 'workable".) Michael's pain meds, dyalisys, anti-rejection meds for the original liver transplant, etc, have pretty much shredded HIS stomach/etc. and he has to have treatments with an argon laser (day surgery, endoscopic stomach surgery).

Once a monh, now once every 2 weeks, we take a person that has a bloodcount so low that there have been times that nobody knew if he could survive the trip, put him in my car, and drive 2  1/2 hours to a day surgery in Austin for the argon laser surgery he needs, and that will eventually help heal this mess. You'd THINK there'd be an argon laser in the hospital in Bryan. Well...there IS, but they won't use it on Medicare patients because there isn't enough money in it. And, the hospital, which COULD arrange an ambulance transfer to and from the Austin facility, won't--because they'd have to admit that there was an argon laser available that they refuse to use on Medicare patients.

St. Joseph's Hospital. They'll admit him, give him 9 units of blood in 5 days (the body holds eight) and then send him home to make a long trip, have surgery and make the long trip back the same day. They get 5 days of hospital bed rate, and the reimbursement for the blood, and care, so they're not losing money. But, evidently, the charity part of their care doesn't extend to actually doing what's best for the patient.

What's the common thread here??  Greed.

In the city where the George HW Bush Presidential Library is, greed isn't just good, it's the guiding principle.

Oh, and don't get a catastrophic illness that makes you poor and unable to work. Because then you're definitely considered second class.

[goat starer]

That is why I am still delighted by our Welfare State in the UK for all of its problems (unfortunately it does not extend to animals). You get better healthcare if you are poor in Cuba than you do in the US.

Why do we have crime? Greed! why do we have greed? because it suits the powerful and rich! So what we have in effect is a system that promotes crime. dont hear that many politicians bigging that feature up.

[Sibling Chatty]

The biggest criminals on earth are the ones who rig the laws to their benefit.

Organized crime works outside the law, with an understanding that, when caught, they pay the penalty. Disorganized crime, AKA modern politics, rigs the laws, the rules and the 'spending bills' to their benefit, yet still find the need to go outside the law to sate their endless greed. And that's with the ability to vote themselves pay raises on a salary that grossly exceeds that of the 'average' American.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/06/20/dobbs.june21/index.html

Tom DeLay said at the time that something had to be done because inflation was eating away at their buying power. Aren't all those poor folks glad they don't have any money? They've got no buying power to be eaten away...except of course, for food and shelter, the minimum requirements of life.

They wonder why so many of the poor drink or drug themselves into a stupor, and then commit crimes to be able to do so? Maybe it's the sense of futility, knowing that whatever you do, some congressman has done more, and worse, and he gets rich off it.

We've even given up saying "come the revolution". Without the middle classes recognizing that they're being pushed downward, there'll be no changes, not even minor ones. The rich have co-opted so many of the middle class into accepting their subjugation, on the false premise that they will be able to move up to be rich someday, if they work hard and support the kleptocracy. Funny, they never mention the rising taxes and failing jobs situation that'll keep the middle class barely 'middle', but just enough to provide the goods and services that the rich want and the poor can't provide.

A 'welfare state', like the Right Wing decries, where people get enough to eat, sufficient shelter and education, and healthcare, will eventually provide a stable middle class, which is the strength of any financial system. (The stability of a large base of people that work and save a part of their money for future needs and betterment.) A kleptocracy, like the US has now, provides an unstable base of poor people getting poorer and a middle class that can't save, because it takes all they can do to maintain their current standards in an inflating economy where their wages aren't growing as well. The rich 'tighten up credit' and loan each other money, at very favorable terms, but they never touch 'the principal' so they never take a risk, except with Other People's money (the savings of the middle class) so if the investment goes bad, the 'bank' (made up of the savings of the middle class) takes the loss, and the government bails out the bank. Taxes on the lower and middle classes fund the government. Proportionally, the wealthy pay next to nothing in taxes, thanks to being able to rig the rules so that their 'income' isn't counted as income. (Capital gains, for instance.)

Isn't it nice to know that most of the planet is intended to support the wants and needs of the few powerful and wealthy? Nah, I didn't think so either.

[Sibling Zono (anon1mat0)]

I would say that politics as currently understood are the ultimate organized crime (you have to see how they pass laws to protect themselves).

Disorganized crime is when an otherwise honestman is cornered into it, usually for the health of his loved ones.

Criminal organizations are just *standard* crime. 

[Sibling Lambicus the Toluous]

The rich 'tighten up credit' and loan each other money, at very favorable terms, but they never touch 'the principal' so they never take a risk, except with Other People's money (the savings of the middle class) so if the investment goes bad, the 'bank' (made up of the savings of the middle class) takes the loss, and the government bails out the bank.

Reminds me of that old saying: "if you owe the bank a thousand dollars and can't pay, it's your problem.  If you owe the bank a million dollars and can't pay, it's their problem."

I'd add a corollary: "If you owe the bank a billion dollars and can't pay, it's the government's problem."

[Teripie]

The United States has developed a very successful welfare state. It's the "corporate welfare state." The big corps now buy and sell seats of government where they write the laws to suit their pocket books. Why do the people allow this? Is it laziness, head-in-the-sand, or apathy? All of the above maybe?
The poor are ignored by politicians. It's widely known that they have no power and the only time they are courted at all is election season. Then the politicians and media whip them into a frenzy over issues that really do not effect them. Gay marriage, abortion,, and crap like that, the hot button issues are all that are discussed. And the media is in on this game. They're not exactly hot beds of free thinkers. The Fifth Estate is now owned and run by the big companies as well, why would they want anything to change?

Everyone has an agenda. Unfortunately the agendas are ranked by the importance of what value they hold. And if you ain't got the money, your agenda is not going anywhere.