Healthcare is a right. Its an absolute mockery of everything the U.S. stands for that we are the richest country in the world and we won't even provide healthcare to our citizens. Out of the top 25 industrialized nations in the world, we are the only one without universal healthcare. We are the exception, not the norm.
Not to mention our healthcare system isn't even as great as we make it out to be. Sure, its great if you can afford it, but for an increasingly large amount of Americans, it is unaffordable. And without insurance many places won't even treat you unless it is an absolute emergency.
The U.S. has "sickcare" rather than healthcare. Its like waiting until your car breaks down before you take it to the shop rather than taking it to the shop before it breaks down. You end up wasting a ton of money fixing a problem after the fact rather than saving money and fixing it before the fact.
People are scared to go to the doctor, because if you get diagnosed with something it can mean you lose your health insurance. When you get sick, you lose your insurance. Its a kafkaesque nightmare, with all the incentives in reverse of what they should be. People are discouraged from seeking treatment when they should and only seek treatment at the worst possible times.
We had two bags of grass, seventy-five pellets of mescaline, five sheets of high-powered blotter acid, a salt shaker half full of cocaine, a whole galaxy of multi-colored uppers, downers, screamers, laughers…Also a quart of tequila, a quart of rum, a case of beer, a pint of raw ether and two dozen amyls. The only thing that really worried me was the ether. There is nothing in the world more helpless and irresponsible and depraved than a man in the depths of an ether binge. –Raoul Duke
It is hard to shed anything but crocodile tears over White House speechwriter Patrick Buchanan's tragic analysis of the Nixon debacle. "It's like Sisyphus," he said. "We rolled the rock all the way up the mountain...and it rolled right back down on us...." Neither Sisyphus nor the commander of the Light Brigade nor Pat Buchanan had the time or any real inclination to question what they were doing...a martyr, to the bitter end, to a "flawed" cause and a narrow, atavistic concept of conservative politics that has done more damage to itself and the country in less than six years than its liberal enemies could have done in two or three decades. -Hunter S. Thompson
