The importance of a social safety system and a good (non employer related) healthcare system in order to have a productive workforce and society, and why everyone should have access to good healthcare, food, and stable, clean, pest free housing, regardless of their physical or mental ability to work.
The way we treat our sick, injured, disabled and elderly is atrocious and we should all be ashamed that we let this happen.
I work in EMS and the amount of people I’ve seen living in the most horrific conditions simply because they got sick or injured and are now permanently disabled absolutely haunts me. I’ve gone into places that I wouldn’t even let an animal exist in and there are people living in absolute squalor. They aren’t “lazy” or “looking for handouts” or any other shitty thing that people like to call them to other them, many of them simply had the misfortune to get sick or injured and not have a safety net in place. If you get disabled and aren’t lucky enough to have people around you to help support you or haven’t been rich enough to be putting money away to live off of for the rest of your life, you are fucked. I have no one in my life and I live paycheck to paycheck on a strict budget, and I see these people and know their life will be my future if I get sick or injured.
Some of them were always going to be permanently disabled, and some of them could have recovered and lived productive lives except they couldn’t access the care they needed because of cost and now they’re living in shitty poverty situations, still unable to access what they need, and it’s too late to recover.
I could go on for a long time about this, and I could add in many other subtopics.
On a slightly related note, I don’t in any way shape or form believe that a person’s life or value should be linked to the workforce or their ability to labor and I think that’s a disgusting concept, but I could also frame a solid argument along those lines and maybe win over some hardcore capitalists who maybe wouldn’t give a shit about people otherwise. “Hey those people you don’t care about, if you invest some money to ensure they are as healthy as possible and are happy, they’ll get back to work creating profit for the company and will be way more productive than if they are sick and unhealthy, which will be way better than spending money paying out disability for the rest of their life.”
The importance of a social safety system and a good (non employer related) healthcare system in order to have a productive workforce and society, and why everyone should have access to good healthcare, food, and stable, clean, pest free housing, regardless of their physical or mental ability to work.
The way we treat our sick, injured, disabled and elderly is atrocious and we should all be ashamed that we let this happen.
I work in EMS and the amount of people I’ve seen living in the most horrific conditions simply because they got sick or injured and are now permanently disabled absolutely haunts me. I’ve gone into places that I wouldn’t even let an animal exist in and there are people living in absolute squalor. They aren’t “lazy” or “looking for handouts” or any other shitty thing that people like to call them to other them, many of them simply had the misfortune to get sick or injured and not have a safety net in place. If you get disabled and aren’t lucky enough to have people around you to help support you or haven’t been rich enough to be putting money away to live off of for the rest of your life, you are fucked. I have no one in my life and I live paycheck to paycheck on a strict budget, and I see these people and know their life will be my future if I get sick or injured.
Some of them were always going to be permanently disabled, and some of them could have recovered and lived productive lives except they couldn’t access the care they needed because of cost and now they’re living in shitty poverty situations, still unable to access what they need, and it’s too late to recover.
I could go on for a long time about this, and I could add in many other subtopics.
On a slightly related note, I don’t in any way shape or form believe that a person’s life or value should be linked to the workforce or their ability to labor and I think that’s a disgusting concept, but I could also frame a solid argument along those lines and maybe win over some hardcore capitalists who maybe wouldn’t give a shit about people otherwise. “Hey those people you don’t care about, if you invest some money to ensure they are as healthy as possible and are happy, they’ll get back to work creating profit for the company and will be way more productive than if they are sick and unhealthy, which will be way better than spending money paying out disability for the rest of their life.”