Blog April 5, 2020
In My Opinion….
IMO
we are dealing with two major issues in this country, the USA, right now.
1. A total lack of preparation for a pandemic even though there was a
roadmap laid from the 44th administration. There is an excellent book called The
Fifth Risk by Michael Lewis. In it he
explores “the Trump administration’s botched presidential transition.” Well, this is one of the things that was
botched.
2. A lack of understanding of
a strong federalist system of government versus a Libertarian or decentralized
form of government. A lack of
understanding of how the American government functions in the best interest of the
people, and not the 1% at the top.
3. Our health care system and
our economic systems have both been laid bare.
We can see the utter dysfunction in both of them and how this country is
geared towards the wealthy…I read somewhere that when the billionaires are
calling for the economy to open up and people go back to work, it is because it
is the people that continue to make this person rich. It is their labor and nothing that the rich
person is accomplishing alone.
1 1 And 2:
On the first point, I pray that 45 is voted out of office so that we can
have a President come in that knows what he (and someday we pray a she) is
doing, and actually cares about the people and not just lining his own
pocket. The work was done in the
previous administration to work with a company and through that collaboration
tools were created specifically to deal with a pandemic. Machines that could make ventilators much
more quickly than the conventional equipment.
The other thing that is vital that was worked on is making the Medical
Face Masks n95 reusable. This would have
been a game changer at this moment in history, and it would have been a very
economical move.
We
need a centralized Federal government that understands the flow chart. Yes, many things are in the hands of
Governors and Mayors. Part of the reason
we are the UNITED states is so that the Federal government can centralize the
kinds of things that might have made this pandemic less powerful on our
shores.
It
is beyond my comprehension how someone that occupies the oval office cannot be
either so ignorant, or perhaps so lazy, as to see that it is the function of
federal government to see to the production of things like ventilators, even if
there are thousands of them and they sit in waiting for many years .
I
am realizing that some of what we are seeing is Libertarian principles in
practice. This is how things are
supposed to work: The federal government
has the stockpile for the nation. When
there is a crisis the state governments are supposed to be able to request the
equipment that they see as a reasonable projection of what they will need in
order to care for the sick and not have to make ethically devastating decisions
about who will live and who will die.
The ones who will die are the ones that are not chosen to have the life
saving equipment. When there is a
shortage. There are not supposed to be
shortages. State governments are not
supposed to be competing against each other and driving the costs of production
or acquisition higher and higher.
Governors have reported having orders made and paid for and having the
order redirected to another entity.
Because the federal government has had such a lack of planning or being
responsible for the federal work of preparation, this country is facing a
horrendous death rate of our citizens.
And 45 is just cozy fine in his safe occupancy of the oval office. It is not meant to be a safe house.
As
I see it the Democratic party in our two party system believes in a strong
federal government. Government is a good
thing and is responsible for the well being of every citizen in the country and
around the world. As well as having a
global sense of responsibility for the world.
To who much is given, much is expected.
In
the Republican party there is a tendency at this point in history to see the
Libertarian party principles as the best way to go. Government
is not good, the less government intrudes into our lives the better. A weak federal government and a strong
decentralized government, as in the states and territories, is ideal. The rich have no obligation to help the
ordinary people which make up the much greater percentage of our population.
I
think that the consequences are clear of believing in the decentralization of
government, with the meaning that the federal government does not see itself
responsible for the welfare and well-being of each of the states. Instead the job of preparation is supposed to
be totally left up to the decentralized government through the individual
states.
Because
the country does best when the federal government is active in procuring and
planning, and 45 did not announce, we are going to do it my way, we are seeing
the devastation that this has brought to the country. Governors and Mayors are scrambling to
project how much/how many life saving equipment (both for the patients and for
the front line health workers) will be needed and trying to find those things
not only in the United States but around the world.
Which
is why China now owns us. China is
sending us supplies which gives them the great pleasure of having the United
States of America over a barrel, so to speak.
The
consequences of this lack of understanding the role of the different parts of
the government where the role of government is valued as the place that cares
for people….things as small and as hugely important as food stamps, the safety
net, these things are being destroyed by this government that does not believe
that government is good.
And
people are dying.
First
thing then is a total lack of preparation for the work that was ahead. A total ignorance of the flow chart. Caring about and concern for only the
“base”. Even passing legislature that
will harm the very people who, through the flawed Electoral College, voted him
into office, and his “base” is still by his side.
On
the subject of health care and the economic system the false façade has been
pulled off of them and we can all see them for the glaring ugliness that they
actually are.
We have a for profit medical system in this
country. It is a disgrace to have our
health care operate in this way. The
people who are responsible to shareholders are going to choose
the
cheapest way to do medicine so that instead of having money go to the care of
the people, the money lines the pockets of the rich shareholders.
The
system is dysfunctional to an extreme degree by not having universal health
care that is available to every person, citizen or not, who presides in this
country, as well as those that are visiting.
With
the coronavirus that we are dealing with now as a country it is laid bare that
there are people who have no way to pay for time in a hospital to heal from
this disease without becoming so debt laden that they will be under the shadow
of that debt for a very long time.
Measures have been passed legislatively to have testing for the virus
covered by the government. If I have no
health insurance and the test comes back positive, what then?
Emergency
rooms have a legal obligation to treat anyone who comes to their doors, and
then the person without health insurance will be billed for the services.
We
are a society with classes. We tout
ourselves as being equal. And we are
not.
This, the inequality, is also clear in our
economic system. I have come to realize
that I agree with Andrew Young, former presidential candidate in the Democratic
political
party. He is calling for a basic income that every
person, except perhaps the 1%, would receive in order to obtain a sense of
security in their lives. I have read
again and again these last few weeks that it is a privilege to be able to stay
home/stay well. Because of how our
capitalist economic system is set up we have people who work in industries that
do not provide health care, do not provide sick leave, and do not provide a
living wage. For a huge percentage of
people in this country.
The
decision was made that as a country we would allow the economy to take a hit in
a way that we have not seen since the Great Depression in the twentieth
century. It seems to be a totally
dualistic decision. Either we continue
to live as we always have and watch the death rate from this virus probably go
into the millions of citizens. Or we try
to save lives and “flatten the curve” to allow less people to get sick at once
and not overwhelm the healthcare system.
The
healthcare system is overwhelmed.
Unemployment is now into the millions.
Our economy is being devastated, but more than that, many human beings
are being devastated. The light is being
shined upon the deep, festering dysfunction in a way of life that privileges
some, and has no regard for others.
And
we have a president that claims no responsibility at all. He thinks that the states should have been
doing the work of the federal government.
Because
of course government is evil and the less intrusion into the lives of the
people, the better. Including dismantling Environmental Protection Agency acts
that were put in place by the 44th administration when Barak Obama was
president. Protecting the environment is
government intrusion. It also is not lucrative for the industries that continue
to make the wealthy, wealthy.
Robert
Reich has said something to the effect of:
we are in a system where the majority are not well financially but the
millionaires and billionaires are flourishing excellently.
So
this is In My Opinion. We need to be a
little more a Socialist Democracy. The
system has to function for the poor as well as the rich.
Right
now it does not.
