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snousleI'm noticing a certain theme in politics lately - that if the existence of a complaint is evidence of a problem, the a lack of a complaint means the problem doesn't exist.
Take the notorious "waiting period" for Canadian health care. The reason that this wait is even discussed is because there are identifiable people who are responsible for it and who theoretically listen to the complaints - the various provincial agencies that administer health care programs.
Here in the US, if you're not paying cash, you still have to wait. I can point to lots of instances where people with gold-plated coverage wait for months to receive basic care, to the point where they are completely disabled for far longer than necessary. But here, it's all a morass of private transactions, with no central authority to take responsibility for the problem.
Does the waiting problem go away? No, it does not, it simply drops from public awareness, because there is nobody to complain to. Instead of one big problem, there are thousands of little problems that don't merit individual attention. Instead of being the responsibility of a democratically accountable government, it's all the result of private, "consensual" transactions for which there is no recourse. The buck doesn't stop anywhere.
This is a distinctly conservative vice - to complain about the operations of government while offering little in the way of workable alternatives. Many Americans don't realize that their "rights" are only restrictions on government activity; the principle is that Congress may pass no laws restricting this or that liberty. When you shrink the government, you shrink your freedom along with it. Free speech exists in the public square; it doesn't exist in shopping malls. And the right to redress grievances barely exists in the world of corporations and private property. Vote with your feet? Oh, sorry, you already sold your shoes to pay your credit card bill.
One of the wisest things I've heard about politics is "Don't worry about what you hear in the news, because that's already being dealt with. Worry about what you DON'T hear in the news." Among the things you don't hear in the news so much are stories of privatized injustice. Every time you hear complaints about how awful this or that government policy is, you should feel gladdened, because that complaint is the sound of American freedom at work. Once the public sector is finally small enough to drown in the bathtub, nobody's going to care about your problems anymore.
Take the notorious "waiting period" for Canadian health care. The reason that this wait is even discussed is because there are identifiable people who are responsible for it and who theoretically listen to the complaints - the various provincial agencies that administer health care programs.
Here in the US, if you're not paying cash, you still have to wait. I can point to lots of instances where people with gold-plated coverage wait for months to receive basic care, to the point where they are completely disabled for far longer than necessary. But here, it's all a morass of private transactions, with no central authority to take responsibility for the problem.
Does the waiting problem go away? No, it does not, it simply drops from public awareness, because there is nobody to complain to. Instead of one big problem, there are thousands of little problems that don't merit individual attention. Instead of being the responsibility of a democratically accountable government, it's all the result of private, "consensual" transactions for which there is no recourse. The buck doesn't stop anywhere.
This is a distinctly conservative vice - to complain about the operations of government while offering little in the way of workable alternatives. Many Americans don't realize that their "rights" are only restrictions on government activity; the principle is that Congress may pass no laws restricting this or that liberty. When you shrink the government, you shrink your freedom along with it. Free speech exists in the public square; it doesn't exist in shopping malls. And the right to redress grievances barely exists in the world of corporations and private property. Vote with your feet? Oh, sorry, you already sold your shoes to pay your credit card bill.
One of the wisest things I've heard about politics is "Don't worry about what you hear in the news, because that's already being dealt with. Worry about what you DON'T hear in the news." Among the things you don't hear in the news so much are stories of privatized injustice. Every time you hear complaints about how awful this or that government policy is, you should feel gladdened, because that complaint is the sound of American freedom at work. Once the public sector is finally small enough to drown in the bathtub, nobody's going to care about your problems anymore.
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no subject
Date: 2012-10-16 09:39 pm (UTC)Another example of what you refer to is when some wealthy corporation is polluting the environment; often the government is the only entity that can possibly stand up to them and make it stop. Even if all the landowners affected banded together, often they wouldn't have the resources to challenge a major corporation.
no subject
Date: 2012-10-18 05:25 am (UTC)Yes, for them. Just as with everything else that fits in the "you should be able to buy your way out of it" bundle. You're missing one thing. Not everyone who's paying cash has to wait. If you're paying ENOUGH cash, there are concierge options. And that's what people laud as "liberty."
Sigh.
no subject
Date: 2012-10-17 05:02 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-10-17 12:15 pm (UTC)It made me think of "death panels" ala Obamacare ... while they don't really exist, "death panels" do exist in private insurance, they are just called "underwriters". You cannot contact them directly, although there is an appeals process, their final decision is just that final. Kinda gives you pause when Repulisivans state that want government to be more like private industry.
no subject
Date: 2012-10-17 04:12 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-10-17 08:20 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-10-18 05:00 am (UTC)I had a similar strange conversation about mobiles in the US when I was over in 2011. Turns out people are being shafted compared to Europe, because it's all private companies and a fear of any regulation means that unlike the UK where the mobile co.s are told to reduce prices and not shaft the customer and get caught colluding and fined heavily, there seems to be little such checks and balances in the US. Hence no transferable sims, some odd rules over data and some really expensive plans.
I was amazed, I thought the whole idea was the US capitalist free trade system was supposed to stop that sort of thing through mass competition....nope. You actually have to regulate otherwise the companies collude to stitch up the market and there is no reason to innovate because the status quo is comfortable. Strangely this idea of public control over private companies seems alien to the US? And also seems to be dropping out of favour here, worryingly...