I think it's a sign of our Society,
This is Bill Moyers Journal this weekend. Sorry, I can't embed it. The second part talks about single payer healthcare.
I'm not excited about talking about the proposals. What I do want to talk about, is the lack of willingness to fail. Why wouldn't you put together a Great Bill, that is The solution, and make them vote on it. When did it become such an Egregious mistake, to Fail. Why can't you put people on the record.
I always like to break things down, and move back to Nature. There you are, on the African savanna, If you go head to head with a Lion, or even a Bear, you will lose. BUT, the lion or bear does not want to fight. Why? because in the fight, you may Break some of a Lion's bones, or you may be able to Mame the bear, and suddenly the cost benefit analysis, doesn't look so promising for that predator. The same is true for the High School Bully, they will make fun of you, as long as you take it, it's not until you put up a fight, and it's not easy. At this point, it is much easier to prey on the weaker. You may not win, but just putting up a fight, you can win, and keep the predators away.
When Congress, stops allowing things to go to a vote, when you stop the fight, before it has started, when you don't "Open the Kimono", we all lose. For some reason in our society, losing stopped being an option. Make them sign on the line that is Dotted. Make those that fear going on the record, obstructing... What ever it is... Make them 'Hit the Button'
As the Fred friendly quote at the end points out:
...I kept thinking of the late Fred Friendly, a pioneer in broadcast journalism and my friend and mentor. Fred used to talk about how argument and discussion should make the agony of decision making so intense you can only escape by thinking.Not having the Argument, or the debate through legislation, We are robbed of something, It makes it too easy for the Ignorant, to hide behind their Ideology, and Ignorance.
CRY HAVOC AND LET LOOSE THE DOGS OF WAR-Shakespeare
If you are not willing to have the fight, then obviously you didn't believe in it, enough to make it happen.
If you watch the entire episode, including the previous un-included segment. It's obvious how broken our system is, how many viscous circles it's in. Let the insurance companies try and make 20-30 year olds, be the only people who can afford to be covered, there is no problem, with letting the system break down, and finally calling the wrecker, and having it towed away.
If anyone had any sense, they would force both the Hospitals and the insurance companies, into a corner, Set them in motion a Death Spiral, and let them chose to survive, or not, they do have much better resources for problem solving, than government, ever will. It's obvious to me, that the corporations involved are caught in the,corporate strategy, provide high cost product, of no or limited value, and pray that nobody catches on, Then wonder why it wasn't sustainable. It's like a Classic Lotto Ticket, or even Legalized Extortion...
This isn't particularly the issue I wanted to hit, Most of my intent was to suggest that, there is nothing wrong with Failure.
"You want to Live!!! it will cost you every dime you will ever make!" and of course we pay it, regardless of the real cost of the service.
But the real question, to think about, is why is it so hard to Fail. Sometimes the fight is more important than the win.
Which also reminds me of my, being called a Terrorist for using Bit.Ly.... I kicked the shit out of that guy.
4 comments:
I think we did have a discussion about health care. In case you missed it, last summer the family discussion degenerated into our retarded cousins yelling "Socialism, Nazis, you want to pull the plug on Grandma." Remember?
As far as the fear of failure, Obama failed. Don't ya get it? He left the family discussion on health care to Uncle Harry and Aunt Nancy because he was attending ot other things-- like impending financial Armageddon and 2 wars--and they fucked it all up.
Obama tried, and failed. It's not for lack of attempting compromises and watering it down; the bill just was never going to pass. The average bloke isn't suffering enough from our shitty health care system. It just isn't time yet to fix it. We apparently don't mind transferring gobs of our wealth to private insurance companies.
It's not that the discussion on Healthcare is not important.
The point, i'm poorly trying to make. Is that Voting on Single Payer, and having my representatives vote against it, is important.
Seeing Congress Vote against things that make real sense is important. We should be able to see that, and not have them "Not come up for vote"
In a broader sense, it just seems like we have lost our sense of "Work for Acomplishment."
As Michael Jordan says, "I failed a thousand times before I succeeded"(ok, not a direct quote)
I even see it in my work, The last thing I want a client to see is how many attempts I go through, how many things I try and fail, before I find the answer.
We tend to think the world is "Boolean" either you have the answer or you don't.
I'm probably plenty guilty of this in my own life.
Health care is important and we had a discussion. Single payer was never a viable option from a practical standpoint. Sure, you could vote on it to prove some principle, but it would have failed and then everyone to the right of Bill Moyers (which is 97% of the population) would be convinced that not only are Nancy, Harry and Barack unrepentant socialists, but they are failures who are so out of touch with the nuts and bolts of passing legislation that the Dumbocrats needs to be run out of Washington on a rail.
I think history will view Dems handling of the recent debate very favorably. They presented many options that were palatable and the opposition went into a screaming hissy fit over inanities, calling everyone Hitler and talking about death panels. It was ugly, but the ugliness came from the other side (as usual).
When Joe Schmo finally wakes up he will realize that he was played by the private insurance company lobby. Or he won't ever wake up. But certainly an up-or-down vote on single payer would not have convinced any better.
When Health care collapses, over the next 20 years.
Joe Schmoe is more likely to blame this bill, than anything else.
"Oh Healthcare, I thought Obama fixed that", Assuming they pass a bill.
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