03-01-2013, 12:15 AM
Greg - I agree.
Some "industries" should not be driven by the profit motive.
Here in the UK, we're beginning to be infected by some of the private healthcare distortions, such as GPs (neighbourhood clinic doctors) being financially incentivized (often covertly) to send patients to particular hospitals for treatment or to prescribe expensive Big Pharma drugs.
Some thirty-odd years ago, my 23-year-old cousin defected from Cold War Poland to the UK, by marrying a British citizen for his passport, having just completed her medical studies. Poland lost a doctor. My cousin is bright and tenacious, and quickly learnt English and passed the exams to requalify in Britain.
As my mother had "sponsored" my cousin's holiday from Poland to London, as was mandatory during the Cold War, the Polish secret police held my parents responsbile for their losing a doctor trained and educated entirely at the cost of the Polish state.
Britain gained a talented doctor for free.
This small anecdote has been writ large as the rich west has literally stolen doctors and nurses from Africa, Asia and eastern Europe.
MSM paints Castro as a communist dictator oppressing the people. It rarely mentions the fact that Fidel and the Cuban state trained tens of thousands of doctors and sent them out across central and south America to treat, ahem, the oppressed......
Medicine is too important to be governed by the profit motive.
Some "industries" should not be driven by the profit motive.
Here in the UK, we're beginning to be infected by some of the private healthcare distortions, such as GPs (neighbourhood clinic doctors) being financially incentivized (often covertly) to send patients to particular hospitals for treatment or to prescribe expensive Big Pharma drugs.
Some thirty-odd years ago, my 23-year-old cousin defected from Cold War Poland to the UK, by marrying a British citizen for his passport, having just completed her medical studies. Poland lost a doctor. My cousin is bright and tenacious, and quickly learnt English and passed the exams to requalify in Britain.
As my mother had "sponsored" my cousin's holiday from Poland to London, as was mandatory during the Cold War, the Polish secret police held my parents responsbile for their losing a doctor trained and educated entirely at the cost of the Polish state.
Britain gained a talented doctor for free.
This small anecdote has been writ large as the rich west has literally stolen doctors and nurses from Africa, Asia and eastern Europe.
MSM paints Castro as a communist dictator oppressing the people. It rarely mentions the fact that Fidel and the Cuban state trained tens of thousands of doctors and sent them out across central and south America to treat, ahem, the oppressed......
Medicine is too important to be governed by the profit motive.
"It means this War was never political at all, the politics was all theatre, all just to keep the people distracted...."
"Proverbs for Paranoids 4: You hide, They seek."
"They are in Love. Fuck the War."
Gravity's Rainbow, Thomas Pynchon
"Ccollanan Pachacamac ricuy auccacunac yahuarniy hichascancuta."
The last words of the last Inka, Tupac Amaru, led to the gallows by men of god & dogs of war
"Proverbs for Paranoids 4: You hide, They seek."
"They are in Love. Fuck the War."
Gravity's Rainbow, Thomas Pynchon
"Ccollanan Pachacamac ricuy auccacunac yahuarniy hichascancuta."
The last words of the last Inka, Tupac Amaru, led to the gallows by men of god & dogs of war