In the 1980s Jamaica received a heavy dose of the shock doctrine

[malaise]

We had severe cuts in social spending with stupid RW talking points like 'it takes cash to care'. The result was an outbreak of polio, a disease we thought had disappeared completely from our island, but when you shut down all the community clinics and some public hospitals, that's what you get.

In the 2000s the government tried the 'third way' - a new version of the same shock doctrine - and the resulting cuts in social spending led to our first outbreak of malaria in several decades.

ReTHUGS and their Teabagger allies are going to learn the hard way when a major disease returns as a result of their asinine backward policies.
This is not conservatism - this is reactionary right wing bullshit.

[fascisthunter]

1. deliberate attack against a nation and it's people

it could be described as being an act of war. The corporate world calls it a "hostile take-over".

[malaise]

5. Well stated

It is a hostile takeover of investments made by generations of taxpayers.
The public good has been captured by private greed.

[nadinbrzezinski]

2. Mexico had it in the 1980s, especially after it went into default

it has not fully recovered. Thankfully the vaccination programs, a crown jewel of the system, were not touched. Partly since a lot of the vaccination was done by volunteer health workers. Otherwise, i suspect the same.

But what was touched... the education system, which is from bad to worst... infrastructure... do not get me started... ok some of it, a blind squirrel and all that, did help. The telephone system was government run, exclusively... competition helped make it a little cheaper.

some of the subsidies, like water in poor areas, are still in place. If you live in a well to do area you pay through the nose though... problem is water saving rates are not where they should... that they have tried to change for years.

Another thing that was touched was the basic basket of goods subsidies... making tortillas so expensive the people could not afford tortillas.

This is where our people here want to do in the US as well.

[malaise]

4. Even if you don't touch the vaccines but you close clinics

shut down public transportation and the scumbags raise fares and refuse to operate a 'public good' bus service, lots of folks will no longer be able to afford to go to places for vaccines. Some are so poor they don't even register the birth of their children.

When you no longer have public health services like drain cleaning and mosquito prevention programmes and garbage collection is privatized, malaria is guaranteed.

If more Americans had been paying attention to the shock doctrine thrust on this hemisphere for the last 30 years, they'd never vote for ReTHUGS or accept blue dog candidates.

The 'It can't happen here' approach was always an inversion of reality.

[nadinbrzezinski]

7. Oh trust me we get it

we went to them... and the subsidies for public transportation, a big target for decades are still in place... i mean the metro system in mexico city is one of the largest in the world, and one of the cheapest... 2 pesos for fare... trust me, it is a target.

Mexico has suffered through IMF and has reversed some of this idiocy... but education still is not funded... and the SS system (due to graft and policies, it is a combo) is in trouble.

[salin]

9. simplistic thinking - fed by our reactionary right noise machine leads to constant inversions

of reality. Ex of this Spring: Horrified one minute by the latest fatal natural disaster - chomping at the bit and hooting and hollering for the Rightwing elected official vilifying and advocating axing FEMA. Completely oblivious to the shock doctrine and thus I doubt able to deal with the consequences when they land. "Shut it Down" - misplaced anger twisted into a non-recognizable self-hatred in terms of what many teapartiers are wishing upon themselves and the rest of us.

Hence my fascination with the other story - the one about the very possible downfall of one of the leading entities that has made it much easier for folks to be led into a complacency with their inverted reality.

[malaise]

11. Yes the death of that propaganda machine would be good for

the planet. I can't wait for the drip drip in the US.

Please, please please!!

[Overseas]

3. K&R.

Hoping Democrats band together more to resist the Republican shock doctrine.

[TomClash]

6. Edward Seaga and the JLP

You just ruined my breakfast.

[malaise]

10. He ruined decades for us

:puke:

[starroute]

8. The lack of epidemics is one reason for our loss of collective spirit

There's nothing like a good run of the plague to teach people that we live or die as a community. In contrast, the things most people die of these days are non-contagious and often result from individual lifestyle choices. This has tended to foster the attitude that poverty is as much a lifestyle disease as, say, diabetes.

I can't say I'd like to see the US his by some nasty pandemic, but it would certainly be a wake-up call for the people who think they can retreat into their walled communities and shut out the world.

At the very least, I keep hoping for someone to notice that our overcrowded prisons are a breeding-ground for disease and thus a public health problem in themselves. A health-centered model of social planning has a lot to recommend it, as opposed to our current wealth-centered model.

[malaise]

12. I don't wish a pandemic on anyone but

as people watch social services decline and don't have money for healthy food, the likelihood of an epidemic or pandemic increases.
Most of the social services on the planet evolved as a result of real needs to facilitate the 'public good'.
They will fucking learn that prevention is better than cure.