2008 Woodie Awards
Believe everything and you'll be right half the time
Daniel Potter
Issue date: 7/23/08 Section: Opinions
Friday night was quite the letdown.
I met up with some high-school friends from Alabama at an all-night diner. I'd hardly seen any of them in the last few years, but now they're all finishing engineering degrees.
For the most part I'm happy for them, but I found myself shocked by some of their politics.
These kids aren't idiots - they obviously took harder maths than me, right?
Still, they were wrong about a lot of things. I don't mean they saw things differently; I mean the evidence they cited was flawed.
For example, they oppose universal healthcare on the grounds that it lowers the quality of treatment everywhere it's implemented, and especially in feckless France.
But in 2002, nearly twice as many people died of treatable illnesses in the United States as did in France.
Also performing better than the States were Canada, Britain, Scandinavia - the bogeymen of socialized healthcare. This from the January/February issue of Health Affairs.
Of course, the engineers at the diner argued healthcare in the United States is fine, provided you can afford it - and if you can't, that's probably your fault anyway. Yes, someone really did use the words "survival of the fittest" here.
Now, I contend that a poor man's life is more important than a rich man's wallet, no matter who works harder.
But even if we ignore the complex reality that poverty isn't exclusively a failure to capitalize on opportunity, the fact remains that such opportunities are shrinking, according to data aggregated in the New York Times' series "Class Matters."
Further, anecdotally, a good friend of mine is uninsured. The daughter of drug addicts, in college on student loans while working, I knock on wood just writing about her because until she graduates she simply can't afford to be diagnosed with much more than indigestion.
In other words, survival of the richest punishes all those still struggling to get there, and that is un-American and unacceptable.
I met up with some high-school friends from Alabama at an all-night diner. I'd hardly seen any of them in the last few years, but now they're all finishing engineering degrees.
For the most part I'm happy for them, but I found myself shocked by some of their politics.
These kids aren't idiots - they obviously took harder maths than me, right?
Still, they were wrong about a lot of things. I don't mean they saw things differently; I mean the evidence they cited was flawed.
For example, they oppose universal healthcare on the grounds that it lowers the quality of treatment everywhere it's implemented, and especially in feckless France.
But in 2002, nearly twice as many people died of treatable illnesses in the United States as did in France.
Also performing better than the States were Canada, Britain, Scandinavia - the bogeymen of socialized healthcare. This from the January/February issue of Health Affairs.
Of course, the engineers at the diner argued healthcare in the United States is fine, provided you can afford it - and if you can't, that's probably your fault anyway. Yes, someone really did use the words "survival of the fittest" here.
Now, I contend that a poor man's life is more important than a rich man's wallet, no matter who works harder.
But even if we ignore the complex reality that poverty isn't exclusively a failure to capitalize on opportunity, the fact remains that such opportunities are shrinking, according to data aggregated in the New York Times' series "Class Matters."
Further, anecdotally, a good friend of mine is uninsured. The daughter of drug addicts, in college on student loans while working, I knock on wood just writing about her because until she graduates she simply can't afford to be diagnosed with much more than indigestion.
In other words, survival of the richest punishes all those still struggling to get there, and that is un-American and unacceptable.
Viewing Comments 1 - 4 of 5
Brandon
posted 7/23/08 @ 12:06 AM CST
hahaha
I would imagine they feel the same about you after I've read this article.
Its not worth arguing, but its always funny when people think their friends are flat out wrong and they're so right. (Continued…)
frank
posted 7/23/08 @ 8:08 AM CST
Daniel,
I enjoy reading your articles. I wanted to pass this along for your own info, concerning WMD in Iraq. Yes, it is dated and it does not point to nukes but it is something that happened that a lot of people either aren't aware of or have forgotten. (Continued…)
OZZy
posted 7/24/08 @ 4:13 PM CST
Speaking of things a lot of people either aren't aware of or have forgotten, there had already been multiple complaints about chemical weapons use by Iraq at the time of the infamous Rumsfeld-Huessin handshake in 1983. (Continued…)
news across the neocon empire
posted 7/27/08 @ 3:05 PM CST
This was a most interesting Op-ed, and I enjoyed reading it very much.
Daniel, your not alone. Many of us in the political majority are wondering the same things about the political minority. (Continued…)
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