Money isn't the problem

“Money doesn’t seem to be a problem when the problem is money.” -- Prime Minister of Norway Jens Stoltenberg

I suppose I'd add to the Prime Minister's words, that money doesn't seem to be a problem when the problem is money, or war. We can come up with billions of dollars to fund wars and bail out Wall Street and US car-makers. Even our presidential candidates collectively raised and spent over a billion dollars campaigning the past couple years.

Yet, people struggle to obtain affordable healthcare, even going into bankruptcy as medical bills pile up. Or, people go without basic healthcare because they can't afford it, and end up getting sick and seeking expensive treatment in hospital emergency rooms. And all too often, people show up sick to work because they don't have any time off left, which can further erode their health and spread sickness to their colleagues.

Some people live in run-down, unsafe housing because they just can't maintain a house when working minimum wage or trying to get by on unemployment benefits. And then, once their savings and unemployment benefits run out, their house is taken back by the bank and they and their family are homeless.

It's really a shameful reality we live in here in the United States, a reality it seems we would prefer not to see or acknowledge. Maybe it's just too much of a shock to our view of America The Great, or maybe it's too painful to see that others go without when we have plenty. I suppose some people just don't care.

We can spend billions a month for several years to fund wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Within a matter of weeks we can create and fund a $700 billion entity to get capital flowing again, yet we can not muster the social and political will to make sure that people have basic healthcare and housing. People – fellow human beings with wants, needs, dreams and desires just like everyone else: moms, dads, kids and grandparents, neighbors, and friends. They are everywhere when you take the time to look for and know them.

Maybe once more people start to see them and know them, then money won't be so much of the problem.

Comments

[Patrick]

Hi Steve.

Amen, Brother.

[ms]

Money is never the problem unless you haven't any. I literally want to vomit when I hear how much people want to spend to save this company and that and the other and on the war ... ad infinitum. It's obscene. Those with the money lost a little bit (it's all relative) and now we all have to forego and scrimp and worry and go to work sick so we can pay for their greed, allay their fears and make sure we keep our jobs? Well, maybe we can have a return to jobs for life this way - we'll just work ourselves to death out of fear of being unable to provide for our famiies.

[Steve Bogner]

Thanks Patrick!

Obscene is an appropriate word for it, ms.

[Victor]

Just stopped by to say hello and for what it's worth, you're still in my prayers. I must also add that this post moved me to comment on Crystal's blog.? :)

God Bless,

Peace

[Jeff]

Great post, Steve. I've often wondered about the selective, begrudging stinginess I see out there, and wonder what motivates the people who make these decisions. The auto company execs are having their feet held to the fire, and rightly so, to explain how they are going to make their companies viable, but in comparative terms the amount they are asking for is a fraction of what was handed over to the boys on Wall Street without question or oversight. I think about the endless blank check that gets offered up in Iraq on the one hand, and the outrage on the part of the Bush administration on the other hand when it was suggested by someone that all children in this country should have health care coverage. I don't get it, but maybe it has more to do with status and power and connections than I ever imagined.

[ms]

0m third thought, monry is also never a problem unless you have it either