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‘Don’t get sick. It’s too expensive’: medical debt is putting more Americans in financial crisis
(www.theguardian.com)
this post was submitted on 11 Dec 2023
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Everyone I know has some kind of medical debt. Even my doctor said he ignores his medical bills, who doesn't. What can you do, when you need medical help and insurance won't pay for it. Personally I feel that if someone is chronically ill with a debilitating illness, the most humane thing we can do is allow them the choice of assisted suicide.
I think we should do the "Soylent Green" thing. Remember that movie? When someone is too sick, old, or just tired of life, they have the choice of going into a state-run facility where they go into a bed and slowly assisted into death - and their body is used to make more food for other people. I mean, why not - protein is protein and why not solve hunger and pain at the same time.
I think the most humane thing to do would be to treat them with the best care we as a society can provide without forcing them into massive debt.
Well sure, if you want to be all humane and LOGICAL about it. (rolls eyes). That would be the best option if it is available - but I've seen many patients forced to endure horrible protracted processes of dying without the means to afford any better outcome (and there are some who even the best treatments just can't help).
The most logical thing would be to eat the rich.
Tax them first, proportional to gross income.
(You know, like America in the '40s . Do they know that's one of the few Greats America was, and thus one of the few things they can Make it Again?)
Even like in the fifties would be great!
Yes but there's so much fat to trim away. I think we should give all people a chance to be "at the table." I mean what's wrong with human meat? Ounce per ounce it's more nutritious than the same amount of chicken or beef. Ask the survivors of the Andes' plane wreck.
We’d have to cook it to the texture of shoe-leather, to make sure to kill whatever yuck that might be in them.
That said, something isn’t right with my body; I’m not tolerating meat well, lately. Considering vegan but not sure how to get plenty of protein, and I do love dairy, which is still less expensive than almond/oat milk (which I like well enough).
Actually human meat has no more yuck to it than chicken or beef, but I get what you're saying. Though the survivors of the Andes (the soccer team that crashed and ended up eating their dead teammates) have said that, if they went through such a thing again, they wouldn't hesitate to eat raw human flesh - it was the only thing that kept them from total starvation.
But if we were to market human meat in a palatable way - pasteurized and cooked to whatever temp to make sure it's safe - I don't see why it should be abhorrent to think about eating it. Think of the possibilities - instead of spam you could have Sam and eggs. (sorry bad joke.........)
We could grind them up and turn them into biodiesel!
That's also a possibility, or use the gristle for cattle feed or something. But why not make Soylent Green energy drinks and festive human jerky snacks? Why let all that good meat go to the worms?
Then we pollute the air more. I’m pretty sure there is zero use for billionaires and multimillionaires. Deprogramming and re-education, probably by putting them in crap pay service industry positions, slum dwellings and taking away their toys, including internet and television, and probably telephones that dial more than emergency services.
Nah. I'll take quick and painless. Which also gets into that protein thing. Even today, in a round about way, we all end up eventually as someone else's food. So may as well take a few middlemen out of the equation and just puree people into McChicken filler.
Well I'd probably take the quick and painless route if I had to make a choice.
But in the movie, it's entirely painless and the patient gets to watch a cool movie with beautiful music as they are slowly ushered into the "other world." I think that idea of it being painless and kind of beautiful would make it a lot less dire of an experience (though I like the idea of 25 cent Suicide Booths - there's something about the silliness of having to use a quarter to make it work - just another bit of randomness that makes the necessity of suicide booths more appealing).