the coming storm
Oct. 3rd, 2017 06:32 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
davemerrillI was doing the Chargeman Ken panel with Neil on Sunday, and Neil mentioned something about being "anti something" in the course of our onstage conversation. I forget what exactly he said. An audience member felt that he needed to join the conversation by saying "I'm anti-socialist, is that okay?"
I didn't wanna get into it, but I said "Hey, I'm from Canada, I have a health card in my pocket that says you're wrong." And I had a microphone, so that ended that.
The previous night I spoke to a friend who is healthy himself but is having terrible trouble with his aging parents who are requiring expensive medical care that is likely going to take every penny they ever had. Another friend's parents, both on fixed incomes, are spending enormous amounts of money on the dozens of medications they're both on. I read an article today about a doomsday prepper who's sending all of his doomsday prep food to Puerto Rico - he's losing his home due to foreclosure because all his money went to medical bills for his now-deceased wife. And it's great that the doomsday prep food is going to actually, instead of potentially, help people, but that's for a lousy reason, bankrupted by health care costs.
And I looked at that crowd at AWA and I felt like they were all going to be bankrupted by health care costs, every one of them. Even if you have a good job with healthcare and a retirement plan with healthcare, the insurance companies will just do their damndest to take it away from you, while at the same time the Republicans are doing their damndest to take away Medicare and Medicaid. This is a slow motion financial apocalypse that every single American is staring down the barrel of, if not now than in in a few years.
I don't have a solution, I can't tell everyone to start saving cash like crazy for their future, I can't tell them to move to Ontario or to vote for universal health care. Well, I can, but they won't listen. All I know is that I see this thing looming for everybody, all the time. America needs to get its shit together.
I didn't wanna get into it, but I said "Hey, I'm from Canada, I have a health card in my pocket that says you're wrong." And I had a microphone, so that ended that.
The previous night I spoke to a friend who is healthy himself but is having terrible trouble with his aging parents who are requiring expensive medical care that is likely going to take every penny they ever had. Another friend's parents, both on fixed incomes, are spending enormous amounts of money on the dozens of medications they're both on. I read an article today about a doomsday prepper who's sending all of his doomsday prep food to Puerto Rico - he's losing his home due to foreclosure because all his money went to medical bills for his now-deceased wife. And it's great that the doomsday prep food is going to actually, instead of potentially, help people, but that's for a lousy reason, bankrupted by health care costs.
And I looked at that crowd at AWA and I felt like they were all going to be bankrupted by health care costs, every one of them. Even if you have a good job with healthcare and a retirement plan with healthcare, the insurance companies will just do their damndest to take it away from you, while at the same time the Republicans are doing their damndest to take away Medicare and Medicaid. This is a slow motion financial apocalypse that every single American is staring down the barrel of, if not now than in in a few years.
I don't have a solution, I can't tell everyone to start saving cash like crazy for their future, I can't tell them to move to Ontario or to vote for universal health care. Well, I can, but they won't listen. All I know is that I see this thing looming for everybody, all the time. America needs to get its shit together.
