Cross Country Check-up this past Sunday focused on our failing health care system and what to do about it. The private health care argument said it would ease the waiting lists if there was a private system for surgeries/care. The arguments for and against were interesting but I felt unease because there are interests who have time and ability to present different arguments and who can't afford a wait in pain and discomfort.
How much money do you need to spend time listening to or arguing with the radio station?
If you suffer from anxiety, depression, exhaustion, hunger, or fear the future - you don't need fame or public thanks, you need to be able to sleep, a home, warmth, food for strength, access to a doctor when you need one, and freedom from the social habit of shaming people who suffer.
What good is wealth if its locked up in boxes in the bank gaining profit on an economic theory, but your extended family or neighbour suffer from mental and physical health issues he has no way to fix.
Food, health care and shelter, like family, are not luxuries. They are necessities. A society where people suffer from poverty and can't afford the basic needs, do not provide peace or safety from those who live nearby. They do not provide safety even from those whose assets are locked away. They do not provide comfort to those who focus on their appearance for self esteem. They do not provide a future that is safe for all citizens except those who can lock themselves in their gated castles.
Families can't maintain bonds when even one family cannot face other members if they have no food or a home.
The only thing poverty maintains is social breakdown, people arguing over who should pay what. What "they" should or should not do. Hierarchies of worth. What is worth more - keeping up appearances or respect for life that does not seek judgement because we all become sensitive, embarrassed, hurt, individuals.
A continual obsession with 'keeping up appearances'. Finding scapegoats, blaming others, fancy economic theories, entertainment, road rage, bigotry, intellectual obfuscation, fear of the stranger, rising threats and street crime, racism, sexism, ableism.
If we don't feel safe we become agitated, judgemental, materialistic, isolated from our own sense of worth and ways to contribute to our world. Insecurity changes our nature.
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