Jan Anderson is "finding herself" at 50. Jan was a bra burning, picket sign carrying, hippie flower child when she was young. She organized her first protest in the 4th grade - against the rule that girls weren't allowed to wear pants to school. When she was 16 or so, she marched in favor of 18-yr-olds voting. About the same time, she was campaigning for McGovern and against the Vietnam War. Although Jan never lost her ideals, she was not politically active during the years she and her husband worked while raising two fine, free-thinking sons. Well, she's back. Now widowed and disabled, her pen and her wit have become her weapons of protest. Jan writes often, mostly about political issues, but sometimes about illness, grief, family, or pets. Most of her work is intended to be funny as well as serious and includes large doses of sarcasm, satire, and, especially, musical parody. She calls her songs "Parodies for Progressives." Jan posts at three other sites under the name nightowl724: Daily Kos, The Smirking Chimp, and Cure This. She also occasionally writes book reviews at Amazon.
The pharmacy system in the US is designed to benefit profits not patients. Perhaps there a slogan in there somewhere. I don't believe that the US system is a problem it is an obscenity. A country that is so rich and yet so heartless to it own most vulnerable. The people (The Congress and next administration) should tell drug companies enough is enough.
The Capitalism of the founding fathers was that of Idealistic or overly naïve of Adam Smith. His view of capitalism was that at worst it was benign and at best supportive of the population. We all know that capitalism as he perceived it was still born.Concepts like the ability to negotiate in good faith and fairness have been subsumed with greed and indifference to the suffering of others. (major corporations in this case Drug Corps.)
Capital has successfully imbued the public with a paranoid terror of Communism (another concept that was still born. USSR was nothing like Marx’s Communism in ‘Das Capital’). The average American can’t see the difference between Communism and Socialism and as a consequence Socialized anything is an anathema. In other countries the ‘purchasing power of the governments ‘have reduced the costs with patient subsidies to a point that all those who need drugs can get them.
The Drug corps have divided and conquered by negotiating with smaller (less bargaining power) organizations this sleight of hand and orchestrated spin and misinformation campaign maintains obscene profits.
The furphy is often stated that Americans are subsidizing the rest of the world because of the high cost of development this is blatant rubbish. Sure the costs are high but the profits are stratospheric.
Then there’s the dodges the phony way they increase the life of patents by adding an extra component and calling it a new product.
Or raiding third world indigenous botanics for therapeutic compounds and when they are found buy the rights of the plant from a botanical garden in a first world country for a pittance of royalties they might have to pay the country of origin, not that a few $million is much when compared to the tens of Billions reaped from sales. By the way this raiding native medicines also saves on costs.
A particularly callous example is that of the appetite suppressant that is derived from a Kalahari cactus (part of the native medicine of the San [the genetically oldest race on earth] who are endangered due to diamonds and exploitation). The drug company agreed to pay $5 million for the rights for a compound they believe is worth $15 Billion…..5 years later the San have received nothing but the drug company is actively marketing the product. The company said in a statement that the San have the right to go to court if they’re not happy. The San believe that $5 million is enough to get them a better existence and saw no point in asking for more. Pity the Drug Corp didn’t have the same sense of enough is as good as a feast.
Yet America languishes near the bottom of W.H.O. listing of health systems in developed countries. The fact that Americans aren’t enraged especially given that it directly affects them all stuns me. One wonders what it will take for the people to assert their control over a hijacked system.
While an activist also 16/17 for the right to vote for the indigenous people and against the Vietnam war my interest in dispensing with bras was ashamedly some what more carnal in intent.....well you can't have everything. Some say I have suffered in life because I never lost my overactive Humanist streak but I guess that's a matter of perception..... anyway welcome back and keep up the good work......P&L
by
Andris (4 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 531 comments)
on Monday, December 31, 2007 at 7:30:53 PM
I checked out your articles and several of your comments. I especially liked the article on Egypt and I learned a lot from it. Your comment on the effect of all "reporters" becoming "journalists" was so true...
The ENTIRE healthcare system in the US is about "profit, not patients!" And, obscene is definitely the right word, Andris. Big Pharma and Big Insurance in particular seem to have endless tricks up their sleeves, such as those you listed about re-gifted patents and robbing the San. In the US, we defend our right to spend the most on healthcare and still rank low among other industrialized nations as far as quality and availability!
Americans aren't enraged because Americans aren't engaged. Sometimes I think this is because Americans are "too busy" watching the "Survivor Island Celebrity Idol Shopping Channel" to THINK. But more often, I believe we are suffering from collective depression/Post Traumatic Stress Disorder or that we are overwhelmed merely trying to survive. Hungry people are easily controlled.
Your statement that your support of bra-burning was "more carnal in intent" made me laugh! Hmmm... Thinking, caring, hoping, and acting DOES hurt at times. It would be so much easier just not to give a damn! However, that's not who we are. I cling to the thought that, together with the voices and actions of others like me, we can indeed make the world at least a little better...
I have posted many political diaries and parodies at Daily Kos. Since you liked this one, I thought you might also like these healthcare-related pieces of mine: