Dear Bob Fink: Thanks for the posting on Who will take care of my dogs? You
tell us an interesting story of an "ideal" health system that has failed to
live up to its stated goals. I have heard that all of the Scandanavian
countries are having to backtrack from their earlier goals of universal health
care. Why is that? Are there the same fiscal crunches there as here?
In the face of shortages, one typical solution is rationing. That is
what is described here; rationing of health care. It seems to me that that is
the US reality; we are going to have to ration health care. In fact we do now,
it just isn't rule oriented. But with managed care, the rules and the managers
are being put into place. Maybe it would be better to have the system run by
market forces; that would seem to many of us as fairer than the arbitrary
application of the rule by the manager.
Fairness is our primary concern. Fairness in the distribution of
resources. How do we go after a fair distribution system for income? The
taxation system was designed to do so. High income people can continue to
earn their high incomes, they just should get taxed more. There has been the
cry that people lose their incentives to work with high taxation. I know of
no scientific evidence to support that. What little I am familiar with, would
support the opposite.
I found reading the book by Daly and Cobb, For the Common Good by
Beacon Press in Boston, to give me hope. Here is an argument for an economic
transformation where the society has the goal for the support for human(e)
life. How such a transformation will come about, I don't know. We have to
begin to push for it.
The income distribution "rules" are to totally out of whack. The
CEO salaries listed are obscenely high. I know that there are the usual
justifications but really there is no justification for that given the nature
of poverty at home and around the world. Problem is, that there is no check and
balance system. The governmental process used to try to provide that, and
often taxation was a check and balance stratety. Both are so discredited
right now as to be totally ineffective.
In each mayoral election here, I take the occasion to ask the candidates
just when are they going to raise taxes so that we will have a decent set of
public services. When I moved from Maryland to Tennessee, my taxes went down
several thousand dollars a year. I am regarded with great suspicion with
that question. I have decided that if they won't tax me, I will take the
difference between the two states' tax levels and give that to charity. That
accomplishes distribution but it does not address equitable distribution to
where the real needs are. And its only my giving that it affects. Others
take the money and use it for more personal purposes.
Thanks so much for the inspiration. We need to speak out on this,
not just for ourselves but for the welfare of us all. We cannot continue to
be greedy and stingy. American capitalism has turned us all into Scrooges.
How did that happen? Where in the ghost of Marley when we need it?
Dear Martones: Thanks for the Rotary Club talk, that was very informative
and again inspirational. You are doing a valuable education, for them and
for us. It makes me realize that I could be doing that too. But I'm so
busy with other things that it just doesn't happen. Maybe a New Years
resolution to give at least one talk to some group this year about PD as
I know it. That is the best way to do it; personal story.
All the best. Bob Newbrough ([log in to unmask])
