Evie Day 218
Good morning, and happy Friday to you all. Today is 20 October 2023.
I read my friends’ posts on social media, and sometimes I respond, and sometimes I don’t. One of the last times I responded was a posted picture of a friend’s daughter hugging a lifesize cutout of Donald Trump. I replied, “Rapists aren’t heroes”. I think she kicked me to the curb later that day.
Y’know, if you’re picking Donald Trump over me, please kick me off your friend list. I’m not a traitor. I’m not a fraud. I’m not a rapist. If you prefer that sort over my company, please punt my butt to the fence line.
I could go on. I’ve seen posts about rich people, poor people, sick people, healthy people. One conclusion I have come to is that the world has a number of people who will never have enough. Sometimes people don’t have enough food, water, or access to health care. These folks are on one end of the economic spectrum. Then there’s the other end of the spectrum… people who have plenty of food, water, and access to health care, but it’s the other stuff, the trappings of wealth that they can’t get enough of. There are people in this world who will never have enough money, power, or influence over other people’s lives.
These are the folks who make big campaign donations to the right people at the right time to make sure that their income is taxed at 8% while others get their income taxed at 35%.
I’m not going to blame the poor for their plight. As I stated earlier, some folks don’t have opportunities in front of them. In some US communities, the funding for public schools is pitiful. The affluent send their kids to private schools that get to cherry-pick their student populations, including recruiting the best athletes to represent their schools on scholarship. At the same time, these affluent folks use their political clout to siphon off funds that are intended for public education and redirect them to vouchers and other mechanisms that undermine the public education system.
The same sort of thing happens in health care. Doctors invest in their “private hospitals” while they still see patients who would normally go to the community hospital. Doctor and staff identify the patients with the best insurance, detour them away from the community hospital towards the doctor’s private hospital, and now those insurance companies are paying for medical equipment that is only used by the private hospital. The community at large doesn’t benefit. Eventually, that doctor sells out their well-stocked private hospital to a corporate healthcare system and runs for Congress (Yes, Roger, I’m talking about you).
Enough ranting for the day.
I hope the world is treating you better than you deserve.
Peace y’all.
