? Lost the bottle | Main | Moroni Hides the Plates in the Hill Cumorah ?
November 24, 2009
Why socialist medicine willl fail in the United States
Speaking from immediate personal experience here: Many Americans have romantic visions of Canadian health care but Canadian health care works as it does only because Canadians are deferential to authority and unwilling to complain loudly no matter the situation. The shock of a visit to an ER department will not dent a Canadian's feckless stoicism. Loud complaints are just another way of drawing undue attention to yourself, this considered extremely rude north of the border; so much so that queue jumpers earn little opprobrium while the man kicking the queue jumper out of line earns frowns of disapproval (again, personal experience as the line enforcer). Consequently, wait times, waiting lists and twelve hours of nothing at the emergency room are just another government thing to be endured.
Like the winter, supposedly.*
I am reminded of an observation to the effect an armed society is a polite society. Obama can enact his shitty little elitist plan as he likes**; I doubt it will change the American character, at least not before Obama's shitty little elitist plan is revoked. In the meantime, I pity the fool American medical resident who talks to his or her patients the way I saw patients dealt with at one of downtown Toronto's elite hospitals yesterday. It only takes one person sufficiently pissed off to come back and sort things out properly*** to discourage a shitty little elitist standard taking hold in the United States along the lines of what passes for Canadian emergency medical treatment.
* Sensible Quebecers who abandon the belle province for Florida each winter are derided as "snow birds" rather than lauded as sane.
** Most supporters of socialist medicine are not supporters of socialist medicine; most supporters of socialist medicine - Canadians included - have no clue what socialist medicine entails. Most supporters of socialist medicine are in fact supporters of being "nice" and "fair" to people who could not (supposedly) afford health care if left to their own devices. We know this is nonsense, of course, but they don't. What supposed supporters of socialist medicine do not understand is that socialist medicine is neither "nice" nor "fair" in either the economic sense most often discussed on the right or in the sense of actually delivering the best health care to the most people. But that is not the worst of it. Socialist medicine is, in fact, nothing more than a way for academic elitists such as Obama to ensure the little people, the course people, the Palins cannot complain and cannot take their business elsewhere. Obama and his ilk want a nation of grovelers, a nation of Canadians.
*** I am not speaking prescriptively here. Just making an observation concerning America's rather more robust approach to conflict resolution, even if said resolution is limited to a law suit with teeth.
Posted by Ghost of a flea at November 24, 2009 07:18 AM
Comments
An armed society is a stupid society.
You can't criticize anyone because they might get violent. And freedom from criticism - as you've indicated - is freedom to do wrong.
Posted by: Recruiting Animal ![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.ghostofaflea.com/nav-commenters.gif)
at November 24, 2009 05:22 PM
An excellent point. Much better to have the armed forces, the police and the Cabinet that directs them free from criticism.
Posted by: Ghost of a flea at November 24, 2009 06:42 PM
"Much better to have the armed forces, the police and the Cabinet that directs them free from criticism."
The time-hallowed Canadian way. It'd be unpatriotic to wish for anything else. D'oh Canada!
BTW, I've used part of this post as my Quote of the Day post.
My recent experiences with the healthcare system haven't filled me with patriotic fervour . . . only one doctor on duty in Emergency on a Saturday night, and he was too busy to attend to a patient on the verge of anaphylactic shock. When I mentioned it on my blog, I got a chorus of "_my_ experience was _perfect_!", which of course invalidates the dangerous level of inattention my relative received.
"Nice", but not in the usual Canadian style.
Posted by: Nicholas at November 25, 2009 02:46 PM
Post a comment
Thanks for signing in. Now you can comment. (sign out)
(This comment system is not reliable. Half the time it won't let me comment on my own blog. Please don't take it personally if it does not work for you. Alternative suggestions would be welcome but best remember I am technologically incompetent. Thanks for your patience.)
