Is it “socialism” or just “stupidity”?

Anybody who shops at Costco understands the notion of how “buying in bulk” gets you more for your dollar. That’s NOT “socialism”, it’s basic finance. The more you can purchase of something, the cheaper the per-unit costs will be. Companies tend to prefer a “fast nickel” over a “slow dime”. That’s common sense, not “socialism”.

But when the discussion turns to allowing Medicare and Medicaid to negotiate lower drug prices — the same thing Costco does — people start screaming “socialism”! Medicare and Medicaid are simply insurance billing agencies. They’re not healthcare providers; they don’t own any hospitals or clinics, nor do they employ a single doc to provide care to anybody. They just adjudicate claims and pay bills. And people who regularly shop at Costco scratch their heads and wonder why the damn Medicare administrators can’t do the same thing. It’s not “socialism” it’s stupidity. (Actually, it’s to ensure that all of the taxpayer-subsidized pharmaceutical companies, who are today all based outside of the country for tax purposes, don’t revolt by cutting off the hundreds of millions of dollars of lobbying funding they pay to politicians. The politicians are worried about losing those funds — far more than they’re worried about the ability of Americans to get low-cost drugs. So they make a lot of noise about Medicare being a “socialist” thing that needs to be shrunken down, because there’s nothing Big Pharma would like more than to have Medicare and Medicaid disappear entirely.)

There’s also this notion of “preventative maintenance”, or PM. That’s what makes auto manufacturers recommend you get the oil changed in your car every 3000 miles, get all of your fluid levels checked every 10k miles, get your transmission fluid flushed every 50k miles, and so on. This is not a “socialist” concept, because most people understand that if they fail to do basic stuff on their car, then it’s going to cost them a LOT MORE later on down the road. You don’t need to change your oil, but doing so every few thousand miles is a whole lot cheaper than replacing your engine when it seizes up because the oil isn’t doing its job. Right? It’s not “socialism”.

Getting your teeth cleaned every 6 months is another form of PM. The dentist gets to see if you have any issues that could result in an abscess or other possible problem. A filling today is a lot cheaper to deal with than a root canal and crown in 6 months, right? It’s not “socialism”.

Having an annual physical exam by your doctor is also another form of PM. As are semi-annual things that women have done for their unique needs (vs. men). Staying healthy is a lot cheaper than pretending there’s nothing wrong until you end up in the ER. It’s not “socialism”, its common sense.

However, if someone is not earning enough to pay their basic expenses, then they’re having to make some quite disagreeable tradeoffs that I don’t think anybody in America should be forced to make — like feeding their kids vs. seeing the dentist or doctor periodically. That’s not “socialism” either, it’s stupidity.

It’s stupid because SOCIETY ends up paying these bills in the long-run. You and I and everybody else end up picking up the ER bills and associated costs for these people who are unable to shop at Costco or get healthcare PM done on their bodies.

Let me ask you this: if you had a choice and you KNEW that if you spent $100 on a visit to the Doctor or Dentist TODAY that it would save you $10,000 if you were to wait six months, what would you do? I suspect 99% of people polled would say they’d spend the $100 today.

So why is it that so many people think that providing universal healthcare where people get access to basic medical and dental care where it’s pretty much guaranteed that some 5% or so of them will end up costing $10k — $100k if they wait six months … why is it that this is “socialism” and should be avoided at all costs? What idiot actually believes that spending $10k-$100k in six months is “cheaper” than spending $100 today? It’s somehow “saving taxpayers money”? Are you KIDDING ME?

If you shop at Costco or Sam’s Club or any similar kind of “warehouse shopping club” and you believe this crap, you should have your membership revoked and forced to shop at Circle-K stores for the rest of your life. You do not deserve benefit from “bulk purchase” deals EVER AGAIN!

This whole discussion around welfare and taxpayer subsidies for citizens is they’re no different financially than taxpayer subsidies paid to corporations.

And the truly STUPID part of it is that so many taxpayers think that the monies paid to other citizens — people — represents some kind of “socialism” while monies paid to corporations who hire these people at wages below what’s needed to live represent “successful capitalists” and should be rewarded.

Hey, Mr. and Ms. John Q. Public, taxpayer at large, you’re paying through the nose for BOTH of these members of society! Only the problem is, you have the labels exactly backwards.

Companies who pay their employees non-living wages should be PUNISHED, rather than rewarded. Why? Because their refusal to pay enough for these people to spend $100 today and get PM done on their body is costing YOU AND I AND THE REST OF THE COMMUNITY $10k-$100k down the road! We reward them with continuing tax subsidies and abatements for their lame excuses that they’re able to employ more people by “saving money” paying lower wages — while ignoring the indisputable fact that these people are costing US millions if not billions of dollars of unhinged medical costs while the executives of these companies get fat bonuses and their shareholders get increased dividends.

This is GROSS STUPIDITY!

If you don’t like this whole (misguided) notion you call “socialism” there’s an easy way to eliminate it: (1) PENALIZE employers who pay employees less than a “living wage”; and (2) tax all employers enough to ensure that EVERY American has Costco-style access to basic healthcare (medical and dental) as well as drugs. And that Medicare and Medicaid can negotiate the same as Costco for better drug prices from their suppliers.

The ten richest people in America made far more in profits PERSONALLY than it would cost to ensure basic healthcare for EVERY SINGLE AMERICAN.

If you think that handing Jeff Bezos and the Waltons an extra bunch-o-billions of profits this year is better than taxing them enough to provide healthcare for ALL Americans, that’s STUPIDITY talking! It’s NOT “socialism” or even a FEAR of “socialism”.

This does not mean that the government (that is, taxpayers — you and I) are NOT getting into the healthcare field. We (taxpayers) are simply saying it will cost us far less in the long run if everybody could shop at Costco and buy in bulk, and get their healthcare PM done cheaply today, rather than shopping at Circle-K every day and waiting to end up in the ER and THEN pay their bills.

There’s a really easy way to solve this whole problem. Pass a bill at the Federal level that says anybody who supports a Universal healthcare option gets to pay a fixed amount into a fund every month and get a defined set of healthcare benefits from it.

Everybody else gets to pay an amount into a trust fund that’s determined by all of the taxpayer-subsidized healthcare costs and bankruptcies averaged over the past 5 years, and they get nothing in return for it. Because that’s the model we have in place today. Only we don’t get the luxury of seeing how much that bill really is. We only see the side-effect of it, which is our health insurance premiums rising year after year while our deductibles get bigger and the services covered shrink.

None of this has anything whatsoever to do with “socialism” — which dictionaries define as “a model of economic theory whereby the government, and therefore the people, own all means of production.”

It has everything to do with stupidity and a refusal to see what’s right in front of our noses. It costs orders of magnitude more to delay basic healthcare, and a big reason for this is because we taxpayers reward employers who pay wages that are so low that a significant portion of their employees have to collect welfare and other taxpayer subsidies to cover the shortfall. And we STILL end up picking up the shortfall that this insane system of cheats and imbalances is causing.