Yeah. It's kind of hard to have economic mobility when you start out disadvantaged. It's not impossible to better your station in life but it sure isn't easy and most people can't.
Want to get a better job to provide for your family? Ooooh...you're going to need a college education which will leave you in thousands of dollars worth of debt. Want to take out a loan to move your family out of the ghetto? Oooh, so sorry. You don't make enough money and you have bad credit besides. And so on.
And sometimes, people are just unfortunate, and laziness and stupidity have nothing to do with it. One of the biggest reasons for bankruptcy filings? Unpaid medical bills. People and/or their children who have chronic illnesses that render them unable to work for periods of time, who need expensive surgeries, who get into car accidents...etc. It's sad. One of the biggest changes this country needs is affordable health care. Whether that means a universal health-care system or stronger regulations on drug companies, or something else, it needs to happen.
It terrifies me to know, as one of the millions of Americans without health insurance, that one serious illness or injury could financially devastate me completely and impoverish me for years. My existence is already tenuous enough without figuring out how I'm going to afford chemo or physical therapy.
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2007-02-06 05:29 pm (UTC)Want to get a better job to provide for your family? Ooooh...you're going to need a college education which will leave you in thousands of dollars worth of debt. Want to take out a loan to move your family out of the ghetto? Oooh, so sorry. You don't make enough money and you have bad credit besides. And so on.
And sometimes, people are just unfortunate, and laziness and stupidity have nothing to do with it. One of the biggest reasons for bankruptcy filings? Unpaid medical bills. People and/or their children who have chronic illnesses that render them unable to work for periods of time, who need expensive surgeries, who get into car accidents...etc. It's sad. One of the biggest changes this country needs is affordable health care. Whether that means a universal health-care system or stronger regulations on drug companies, or something else, it needs to happen.
It terrifies me to know, as one of the millions of Americans without health insurance, that one serious illness or injury could financially devastate me completely and impoverish me for years. My existence is already tenuous enough without figuring out how I'm going to afford chemo or physical therapy.