MaxedOutMama had an interesting post on definitions and how they are a-changing: “I finally realized why I find so much of today’s economic analysis so bizarre…you all went and changed the definition of “discretionary purchases” on me. See, back way back when, buying a house was discretionary, i.e., the consumer’s choice, while eating was considered a necessity rather than a choice.”
Really, she has a point, and it seems we’ve all gone awry in how we determine priorities- maybe due to our definitions, or maybe due to values influenced by the constant barrage of political propaganda.
“Maybe we’ve forgotten that, which would explain why we now think health care is essential but don’t worry about people not having enough money to buy food.”
This is something that has changed in my thinking. The outrageous spiral of health care costs and the increasing distance between me and health care affordability and availability means I have made just that leap to thinking that maybe food and preventive health care is the better, maybe the only, way to go. Sure, that doesn’t handle emergencies, but it does filter out some of the revised definitions.
Eat better, exercise, manage stress, these are choices that will raise the level of ones standard of living, not the constant hemorrhaging of money to the health care business sector. Ah, but my kingdom for a horse, you say. If you are suffering from health issues, you just feel caught in the sucking whirlpool, then the change of priorities doesn’t seem practical; but I think this self defeating behavior is exactly what keeps feeding this crazy lack of logic: keep paying that health insurance, but cut back on the quality and necessary amounts of physical nourishment. Yep, that sure makes sense. Because if you do that long enough, the self fulfilling prophecy of just how much you are going to need that insurance to pay for all the ensuing health problems is going to materialize. Although just because you paid doesn’t mean you are going to get.
I think the people working on writing the opinions and statistics are far removed from the basics of trying to put food on the table- their tables must always be well filled to displace that for the politically weighted importance of calling health care as an “essential”.
Additionally, there is the pitting of the acceptable health care, with its extreme costs against the alternative treatments and practitioners such as lay midwives. But that is another discussion.