Reply #34: Yes, capitalism IS the problem - on that we agree - but your ire seems misdirected [View All]

[bread_and_roses]

Medicare, Medicaid and SS are hated by the capitalist profiteers precisely because they ameliorate the savagery of capitalism by operating on a sharing rather than profit-taking model. They are not perfect programs by any means - Medicaid, in particular, is designed more as grudging charity than as the sharing of resources to assure at least basic needs: access to care is usually limited, and its recipients are held in contempt all to often. Like for food stamps, those in need all too often have to essentially beg for their soup. But to sneer at ordinary people for wanting to keep even these minimal safety nets in place - how does that not reinforce rather than undermine capitalism?

And yes, we are greedy: we use and abuse the riches of the earth while others starve, and our gluttonous appetite has direct and devastating consequences for the ecosystem and the other peoples of the earth. However, most Americans are totally ignorant of that fact - it is well buried by our capitalist overlords. And it has little to do with our safety net, poor and shabby as it is, and a great deal to do with the control of all our resources by our Corporate Masters.

People can only act on what they know - and most people, working two and three jobs or scrabbling to stay alive without a job at all have little time or energy to do the research and reading that would inform them. And they're not going to hear it from NPR, much less from any of the corporate media.