A lot of Americans are very ācavalierā about babies. Just look at our abortion rates. And at the rates of drug addiction, alcohol consumption, and STDs among pregnant moms.
And this, despite the fact that pre-natal and post-natal care is widely available for the poor.
Secondly, the US has high rates of murder, unhealthy lifestyles, etc.
And, finally, the US has an unusual demographic mix, with a large and growing population of illegal immigrants from countries where health care is grossly inadequate or even non-existent.
All of this needs to be factored into an assessment of the adequacy of our health care system.
I agree the country has problems. But can they be addressed without curtailing too much of our individual freedoms? As Hamlet might say, that is the question.
You make some good points, levinas. I know of a lot of people who go to Belize, Cuba, and Mexico for treatments that are better and certaionlyh chaper thatn some in the US. And yes, there are some countires that have pathetic health care.
And yes, our Country is becoming more of a mix, something we used to be proud of, calling ourselves a āmelting potā and alleging to draw strength from that. And yet those who come here ought to be here legally. One also wonders what one would do if they were in the shoes, if they had any, (have you been to rural parts of 3rd world counties? I have) of some of the people who come here in desparation. You may have not even a hint of a concept of how some people live. If you respected yourself and loved your family and had courage, you might try to make it to and live in the place so blown into heavenly proportions as ours is. I donāt know. The vast majority donāt, but imagine how desperate you have to be to risk your life or that of your whole family. Or maybe you would take them out on a leaky raft in hurricane season for fun.
But I wholeheartedly agree with you that there is much rto be desired in the way many of us here live our lives from a health perspective. Here, even the junk food chains advertise their āhealthyā products, oil companies tout how they help the wolrd while they ruin land and lives, as does, say Coca Cola, and we happily eat gmo food while in other countries people are awake enought to ban them or sue Monsanto, the devil incarnate, by the millions for damage they have caused. And the glam of advertising neglects to state that with the decline of the middle class nearly 25% of American children are living in poverty. It is unprecedented. And with the privatization of prisons, and their lobbying to make more things illegal, we have the highest proportional prison population of
any country.
We also feed our kids, or did, āpink slime.ā for meat, and eatthings others woouldnāt put in their mouths. Soda and sugar consumption has resulted in an explosoion of diabetes in children and adults. And a whole lot of that is personal responsibility. And maturity. Both of those seem to be in short supply in our Nation. Advertising doesnāt help. Neither does Hollywood. And neithere do the statistics of our own Natonal institutes that demonstrate our slide from first to about 29th or lower on seveeral points of social health, especially education. So in that atmosphere of encouragement to be superficial, accept poison as food, hold up physical beauty and riches as a standard over other attributes, we m,ight have a ways to go. Usualy in history such things are eventually remedied by collapse. Perhaps Americans would rather soon live without toilet paper than get off their duffs and do something to fix ourselves and not someone else. But perhaps Americans are interested in discovering what the rest of the world lives like, and will do so by allowing what we have built here just decay out of existence? Despite many excellent advances, it seems weāve made a good start in that direction. Thank you, Democlicans and Republicrats.
Not only that, but people are replacing God and the Church with the government. For instance, do you know what some of the members of Catholics for Choice try to proclaim? That the Church will not take care of them if they have lots of kids so it is perfectly moral for them to take birth control. Not a good mentality.
