Speak Up

I have a confession. Almost every day I go to school, I find myself eavesdropping on other people's conversations. I am an eavesdropper. Most conversations I listen to aren't really important or even worth hearing, but occasionally I will listen in on a conversation that I am interested in. Usually these conversations are involving politics. Listening to what other people say to their friends about issues, I've decided, is much different than actually talking to a stranger face to face about what they believe. People are willing to open up to their friends and share all of their thoughts. Some ideas from different individuals are very interesting such as - global warming is not real, capitalism is evil, the United States is becoming socialist - these are just a few of the things I overhear every day.

Democracy is an interesting thing. An educated, well informed populace can make for an extremely powerful and effective force working together. Over the last few months, I have found myself thinking about other people's ideas and actually being afraid knowing that they were also contributing to the vital decisions that the US faces every day. To put it in the words of an anonymous savant, "Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large numbers." Thinking of that saying can make Democracy seem a little scary at times, I know; but much to my surprise, I've recently developed a new state of thinking.

I'm glad there are so many opinions in the world. It keeps things in balance. As long as people have bad ideas, there should exist good ideas and vice versa. My biggest worry now is that many people don't have an opinion. Many of us don't care what is going on in our country and we would rather let someone else make decisions for us. We have mentally elected kings and rulers over us. The beautifully scary thing about Democracy is that as the people making the decisions, we can choose to not decide anything. We can choose to do away with Democracy all together if we like.

I am going to redouble my efforts to get involved in our nation's affairs and at least be informed on important matters, and I can only hope that more of us will do the same. After all, the only difference between you living in a Democracy and you living in an Aristocracy is your own voice.

Call Me Socialist

Over the last few days, I have been bursting at the seams with thoughts about our country and who we've become over the last few decades. I am appalled to see our true american colors revealed in just the last ten years with two big issues that have arisen - The War in Iraq (which I'll probably write another note about), and National Healthcare Reform. Maybe no one person is to blame for the issues at hand but, then again, no single rain drop believes it is to blame for the flood.

Healthcare Reform - Some things need to be regulated or controlled by the government and healthcare is one of those things. I know what you are thinking (and I promise this won't be a religious note - just bear with me): "But Mick?! Haven't you read what President Benson said about Socialism?!" Yeah, I've read it. Have you ever read what Christ said about taking care of the poor and needy? Have you ever thought that maybe President Benson feared Socialism because it would mean that someone would have to force us to take care of others? It would mean that we couldn't do it by our own will. Just a thought. Let's not make this a religious discussion though. There's a problem with our system - anyone can tell you that. Congress's solution? Give everyone insurance... I hate to break it to you, but handing out insurance to everyone isn't going to solve the problem, because insurance companies don't control the price of care. If you give everyone insurance and put a cap on how high premiums will go, it will drive insurance companies into the ground. They base their premiums on the prices that HOSPITALS are charging them. If hospitals up the price, insurance companies have to up premiums - that's easy. Let me relate a story passed forward to me by an acquaintance recently to reiterate my point:

A number of hospitals in California decided that they were going to increase prices (of course nobody knew it because everything is so transparent in healthcare, but that's a different discussion). Insurance companies couldn't cover the new costs without raising their premiums, so instead of charging their insured customers more, they sent out mass letters to everyone explaining the situation and giving a list of alternative doctors and hospitals that their customers could still visit. You should be able to guess what happened next. The hospitals reacted with a massive campaign (which I'm sure appealed to peoples' pathos more than a commercial for an orphanage) with the slogan "Don't let insurance companies stand between YOU and YOUR doctor." Those big, bad, evil insurance companies...

Insurance companies aren't the problem here people. Hospitals are the problem. We're focusing all of our efforts on the wrong industry. Until someone can regulate prices in hospitals, healthcare will always be unaffordable. But where will socialized medicine lead us? Won't the quality of care go down? Maybe. I won't refute that because nobody knows. We can look at other countries as an example... Maybe if I put socialism in terms we can all relate to, it suddenly won't look so bad to everyone.

Have you ever called the police before? When you called, did you have to negotiate a price with them before they would come help you? Have you ever received a bill from your local police station? No? So, who pays for them? You do, with your taxes. We all pay for them. Our police force is built on a socialist system - Surprise! I would be willing to bet that our police force would be the most incredibly effective force in the world if it were privatized. Can you imagine how advanced the police would be if your insurance paid them every time they showed up on the job? Or if they made 250k a year? If we are so anti-socialism, why aren't we pushing for privatized police? Isn't it nice to be able to call for help when someone breaks into your house without having to worry about the bill you'll have to pay afterward? Wouldn't it be nice to be able to call your doctor when you've been seriously injured without having to worry about going bankrupt? Some things need to be socialized. Why are we so afraid of doing it with medicine?

So call me a socialist - go for it. If you want to look at it from a different point of view, the only difference between socialism and consecration is your WILLINGNESS to give. If we just willfully took care of the poor and needy, we wouldn't have this mess. Idealistic, I know, right? Most of the arguments I hear against socialized medicine are sickening - the quality of MY care will go down, I can't choose MY doctor, I don't want to wait for MY treatment. Me, Me, Me, My, Mine, I, I, Mine. Why don't you think about someone else for once?

In conclusion, I should say that I am NOT closed to anyone's ideas. If you've got something to say, then say it. I think everyone's opinion is worth careful consideration - I believe in Democracy. Were it not so, I wouldn't waste my time putting my own opinions out there. Hit me back if you've got something to add or if there's one of my ideas you'd like to refute. I don't think I'm always right - nobody should. So if you think I'm wrong I want to hear about it. I'm just as prone to error as anyone else. Thanks for your feedback. And thanks for reading.

Here We Go

I've never been a big blogger, but I'm sick of using Facebook notes to share what I'm thinking with everyone. Whether you choose to read my posts or not, I'm putting them on here for lack of a better place to share them. Here we go!