Posts Tagged health care
Big Health Wishes You a Merry Christmas!
Posted by Don S. in Your health care on December 22, 2009
When you think of the health care debate, think of Ronald Reagan and how he fought the original Medicare bill, calling it “socialized medicine” (circa 1960).
Now, think of those who today use that phrase.
Tobacco profits were enormous in the last century, so it became important to hide the truth as to how effectively it killed. The tobacco industry spent plenty lobbying to hide the truth, and it worked. Industry was protected, the citizens suffered. You could smoke, but if you got cancer, it wasn’t anyone’s fault but yours. You paid for your own treatment or you died, usually both. That was the American way. Any other solution was “socialized medicine”.
The same party that brought you Ronald Reagan wants desperately to save you from “socialized medicine” (whatever that means). We have “socialized police”, “socialized military”, and “socialized” book lending repositories called libraries, among other “socialized” entities. We recently had “socialized banks” (both to protect bankers from themselves and to protect citizens’ assets}. It would seem, then, that “socialized medicine” would be a good thing, right?
Not convinced? Sing along with this stirring theme and remind yourself how much you were buffaloed way back when.
Can we not change “the American way”?
“God rest ye merry, gentlemen, let nothing you dismay,
Remember Christ our Savior was born on Christmas Day;
To save us all from Satan’s power when we were gone astray”.
Cheers, all!
Big Tobacco, 1955-ish
Posted by Don S. in Your health care on November 27, 2009
It’s hard to believe the tobacco industry had such a big hold on the U.S. population 57 years after these ads aired. (Click the “forward” button on the media player to cycle through the commercials.) The American addiction to tobacco in the last century was simply astounding. With the health care debate in full swing, it is instructive to take a look at how private industry approached their social responsibilities to America’s need for good health care in the 20th century. Think of the decades of stalling and deceit the tobacco industry practiced despite incontrovertible evidence that smoking was a killer. See if you think private enterprise has changed much today as you look at these commercials and consider how the Big Health lobby and Big Tobacco may be quite similar.
Click the “forward” button on the media player to cycle through the commercials.
