In the conservative era, America's hypercompetitive society has been very quick to throw away people who haven't made the cut in some way—people without money, connections, or education; people with disabilities that make them economically less viable; people who come from the wrong racial or religious group or the wrong part of the country. You only deserve what you, personally, are capable of earning. If you're badly equipped to do that, it's your own damned fault. If you can't afford health care, you deserve to die. In no case is it the taxpayers' job to step in and make it right.
Nicely observed. It's precisely this conscience-cleansing and ego-enforcing contempt for frailty, for human fallibility, for the inability of some to fit the narrow norms or meet the high demands of well-paid work, that our nation needs to abandon to become a more civilized place.
No comments:
Post a Comment