Poor and Sick in America

[McCamy Taylor]

Most unfortunately, the voices and experiences of those who live in poverty are often neither heard nor heeded by society's more powerful. Thus the people living with low SES experience violence that is built into the structure of our society in the form of neglect, denial of certain human rights and inadequate access to quality public and private services, to name a few of the social pathologies that constitute structural violence.

Justin M. List “Illness, Poverty and the Invisible Patient” from the American Medical Association Journal of Ethics

http://virtualmentor.ama-assn.org/2006/11/fred1-0611.html

I. Which Comes First?

For decades, researchers have known that poverty and mental illness are correlated; the lower a person's socioeconomic status, the greater his or her chances are of having some sort of mental disorder. Yet determining if one comes first - if being poor renders a person more susceptible to mental illness, or if mental illness pulls a person into poverty - is decidedly difficult and the relationship between poverty and mental health has long been assumed to be interactive.

Yet a recently published large-scale, seven-year study suggests that poverty, acting through economic stressors such as unemployment and lack of affordable housing, is more likely to precede mental illness than the reverse.

http://www.masspsy.com/leading/0506_ne_cover_study.html

We all know that illness and poverty are linked in the United States, but which comes first? Some tell us that poverty is a lifestyle choice (adopted by the “shiftless” and “lazy”). In their world view, poor folks who suffer serious illness are eating the fruits of their (lack of) labor. Since many of the nation’s poor work long, hard hours at low wage jobs, maybe that should read “the fruits of their lack of high paid labor”. In this world view, every citizen, Tyrone and Manuel as well as Clifton and Brad, can become a bank CEO---- if only he chooses to do so.

On the other side of the debate are those who say that illness—especially mental illness---is the cause of poverty. This explanation is also problematic, for it can be used to re-enforce the Puritan belief that we get what we deserve based upon where we stand in God’s favor. Since the all powerful creator decides who will be cursed with schizophrenia and who will enjoy a lifetime of perfect health, the nation’s unhealthy poor are God’s rejects, creatures flawed at their conception and destined for a lifetime of hunger and deprivation.

If your tastes are a little bit more Catholic, you may view the presence of the poor as an opportunity---for you to polish up your halo by casting down table scraps to the starving masses that God has put upon the earth to teach folks charity. You can see this tendency among some self described liberals. I feel for the poor---but I don’t want them living next door to me “The Poor” become a separate race of human being, almost another species. They exist in the same way that Mom, Baseball and Apple Pie exist, as a rarified ideal rather than as people. Charity towards the Poor becomes a luxury---which is often the first thing chopped from state and federal budgets when executives find their profit margins slipping.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's insistence on cost-cutting measures to weed out what he has described as "waste, fraud and abuse" in California's social service programs has struck a nerve with Democrats, welfare advocates and the frail.

They say the Republican governor is using the poor as a scapegoat for the state's $26.3 billion budget shortfall. They also fear his proposals, if approved by the Legislature, would trigger increased unemployment and homelessness, and force thousands of people from their homes into expensive nursing facilities.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2009/07/08/financial/f145047D38.DTL&type=business


One thing you will notice during this debate----we seldom hear from the folks who have to choose between paying their heating bill and buying food and for whom a mammogram is an impossible dream. For the most part, they are ignored by the press. Many do not have access to the Internet. Their story is told for them. We read books written by people who have helped the Poor. We hear speeches in which the nation’s ills are blamed on Welfare Queens. If poor folks manage to make their voices heard as musicians, artists, writers, they are soon elevated through the socioeconomic ranks---

We have reality TV about prisons, about corporations, about models, but where is our reality show that records the lives of folks who struggle day after day to survive?

II. Walk a Mile in My Shoes

I can think of only one time in the entire history of the United States when people living in poverty have been treated like real Americans.

Chronic unemployment was the central and most persistent feature of the Depression: by 1932, estimates of the total number unemployed ranged from 8 to 17 million workers -- this, at a time when the total U.S. population was just 125 million. A variety of federal efforts were taken to address unemployment in cultural fields.

Snip

New Deal cultural projects took responsibility for our cultural commonwealth. They took on the task of recording history -- including many parts otherwise deemed too painful or embarrassing to mention.

http://www.wwcd.org/policy/US/newdeal.html#FAP

We all recognize this photo:



It is as much a part of our national identity as this one:



We look at the skinny, prematurely aged woman, and we see ourselves in the frown lines on her brow. We see our own families in the children who cling to her like a tree in a storm. We do not make excuses----she must have had unprotected sex and had those children when she was too young and that is why the whole family lives in poverty---the way we would if confronted by this image:



Once upon a time---for a very brief time---we accepted that ours was a society and economy that produced as many tragic life stories as happy ones. We blamed the system, not the people caught up in that system, and we promised to do something about it---

Until poverty was reduced to an “acceptable” level. And then, we forgot most of those vows we had made. Instead. we started talking about Welfare Queens and about how low levels of unemployment were “bad” for the economy. Because face it, this nation’s corporate fascists gets rich off the suffering of the poor. The presence of poverty as a universal fixture in our country is used to drive down the wages of all workers who are told “Shut your mouth, punch the time clock and do are you are told. Or you will end up like one of them ” . Since no one wanted to become one of them, we started telling ourselves that they were different. They had nothing in common with us, the so called “hard working Americans”. Poverty had a different skin color, it practiced a different religion, it spoke a different langue----

It was Other.

III. Try to Imagine….

That you can see a doctor, because you are poor enough to qualify for care at the county clinic. But, you do not have the ten dollar copay which the clinic’s pharmacy charges per prescription. Therefore, you can not fill the antibiotic prescription which the doctor wrote for you until you get your paycheck next week. By that point, your bladder infection has turned into a kidney infection, so you show up at the local hospital emergency room and are admitted for a life threatening illness. You miss a week of work, putting you and your family further in debt. You are branded a “non compliant” patient, because you did not follow your first doctor’s advice. In other words, it is all your fault.

That your teenaged son is hearing voices that are not really there. They tell him to do things which are dangerous for himself and others. You know that there are medications out there which will turn this stranger back into your dear child----but you do not have two hundred dollars for the initial psychiatric consultation and fifteen dollars a pill for the medication (Abilify) that the doctor will prescribe. The waiting time to see a doctor at the local MHMR, which charges on a sliding scale, is three months, but your son does not have three months. Reluctantly, you follow the advice of your coworkers and turn him over the police for being truant, hoping that the criminal justice system can fill the gaps in our health care system. Congratulations. Your son is now on his way to become a career criminal.

That your birth control pills fail and you get pregnant. Your job does not offer insurance---or maternity leave. If your boss finds out that you are pregnant, you are likely to get fired, which will make it very difficult to support the two kids you are raising as a single mom since your husband moved to another state and has refused to pay child support. You want an abortion, but the closest provider is three hours away. Even though you work for minimum wage, the government will not pay for your procedure---though it will pay for your obstetric care and delivery, no questions asked. Unable to come up with five hundred dollars for the procedure, another hundred dollars for food, hotel and transportation minus the two days wages that you will lose, you miss the deadline for getting the pregnancy terminated. Your boss finds out and you are, indeed, laid off. In your third trimester, you start seeing an obstetrician. Medicaid covers your medical expenses, because the government just loves your unborn child. But the federal assistance you get for your living children will not even pay the rent and grocery bills.

That you are a self employed farmer who can not get health insurance because of a pre-existing condition, high blood pressure. You wake up one morning with your left leg painful and swollen. Your mother died of a blood clot and you know that this is serious. However, you live in the piney woods of East Texas, and the designated indigent hospital for your area is in Galveston, six hour away. You get in a car and drive six hours to get medical care for your deep venous thrombosis. On the way, you see three hospitals, each of which is equipped to give you heparin and Coumadin, but you pass them by. You were taught to pay your own way, and you know that a bill from one of those private hospitals would cost you your family farm. By the time you reach Galveston, that clot has grown bigger. You step out of your car, and the clot breaks loose and heads straight to your lungs. You suffer a cardiopulmonary arrest just outside the emergency room.

That you are the neighbor of the farmer who died of a blood clot after driving six hours for treatment. When your own leg swells up, you decide to go straight to the nearest ER, even though you do not have insurance (pre-existing condition: asthma). You are expecting a bill of a few thousand dollars. Turns out that your emergency room care alone is over ten thousand dollars. The bill for your hospital stay is so high that you have to take out a mortgage on your house and farm, which you own outright. Because of complications from your blood thinners, you are in and out of the hospital for several months, during which time you can not make the money to pay the mortgage. There goes the family farm.

That your father suffered from diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol, which were never diagnosed because he worked in a job that did not supply health insurance. He developed premature coronary artery disease and died at the age of 30 from “indigestion”. Your mom went back to work, at a minimum wage pink collar job. You and your siblings ate a lot of bread and grease, because they were filling and not too expensive. You lived in a really bad neighborhood, because the rents were cheap, so you could not go outside to play and your school cut its physical education program in order to devote more time to training students how to pass standardized tests. College was out of the question. You had to go to work to help support your family. By the time you are in your mid twenties, you are over weight, with high blood pressure, cholesterol and diabetes, but you do not know it, because your job does not supply health insurance. On your thirtieth birthday, you suffer a severe attack of “indigestion”---and, remembering what happened to your dad, you call 911. By the time you reach the hospital, you have already infarcted a huge piece of your left ventricle and you develop congestive heart failure that forces you to quit work. After a couple of years, you qualify for disability and Medicare. By this time, you can barely walk across the room. You will now be able to see doctors and get treatment, which will keep you alive in this invalid condition for many more years.

That your mother died from a stroke when she was in her thirties. No one has ever told you why. Your aunt, with whom you live, has lupus and can not keep a job. Your grandmother died of colon cancer related to her undiagnosed ulcerative colitis. Recently, your neck began to swell up and you have noticed that your heart beats too quickly and you are losing weight. You sign up at the local indigent health clinic and are told that your problems are not emergencies and therefore you will have to wait three months for an appointment. While waiting, you go into thyroid storm and suffer a stroke from your extremely high blood pressure. The emergency room is able to save your life, but you suffer permanent paralysis on your left side and will have to be in a nursing home.

That you retired from your job, which provided insurance, when you were sixty. Since your husband worked for the government and had great insurance that covered the two of you, you were not worried---until he died suddenly of a heart attack. Now, for the first time in your life, you have no health insurance. You cross your fingers and hope that nothing will happen before you turn 65 and can qualify for Medicare. When you notice a breast lump, you decide that it is probably a cyst---you had a benign cyst removed many years ago, when you were still insured. The lump keeps getting larger. Then, your armpit begins to hurt. There are lumps there, too. Still, you wait and hope—until one day, you can not get your breath. And your chest hurts. Thinking this is a heart attack, you rush to the closest emergency room, where you are told that your breast cancer has metastasized to the pericardium, the lining around the heart. You get emergency surgery to free your heart from the constrictive band and your breathing improves. The hospital is able to facilitate your Medicaid application (they do not now want to get stuck with your bill), and now you can see an oncologist for your late stage cancer

That you are always tired. You get eight or nine hours of sleep a night, but you still wake up feeling exhausted. Your blood pressure is through the roof even though you take four different medications---which you are lucky to get for $10 each rather than $100, since you qualify for treatment in a community health center. You wish that you could find a better paying job, one with insurance, but your head hurts all the time and you are too exhausted at the end of the work day to take after hours classes. Your partner tells you that you snore, and someone mentions that could have sleep apnea. You ask your doctor during your next visit and you are told that your clinic does not cover the costs of sleep apnea diagnosis or treatment “because there is not enough money in the budget”. You are given the option of paying for the test yourself----but you would need to put up $800 in order to be tested for something you might not even have. So you put it off---and eventually your high blood pressure causes your kidney’s to fail. Congratulations. You qualify for Medicare, to pay for your dialysis. And you can finally get that sleep study. Too bad you had to lose your kidney’s first.

That your parents were always fighting when you were young. Mostly, they argued about money. Sometimes your dad would beat your mom, after he had been drinking. Your mother drank, too, but in private, after everyone else was asleep. There was never enough money to pay the bills. At least a couple of times each year the lights or phones or water would be turned off. You could never afford the clothes and toys that other kids had. Your teeth are crooked but you can not get braces. You can not play outdoors, because that would cause your asthma to flare up---and there is no money for treatments. One night, your mother calls the cops after a particularly bad beating, and the next day at school you get teased because the neighbors saw the police haul your father away. You hate your mother for being so weak. You hate your dad for being so cruel. You vow that you will not grow up like them. When a boy tells you that he loves you, you sleep with him, though you are only fifteen, because you are so desperate to hear someone those words to you. You get pregnant. You are happy, because now you will have someone---a child---who will love you forever. You have now become a statistic---unmarried women and their children are the face of poverty in this country.


IV. The Invisible Poor

The above vignettes are all based upon true events (though some of the details have been changed to disguise identities). I selected these stories out of many others that I have witnessed in order to make a point. Sometimes illness leads to disability which causes poverty. Sometimes illness leads to huge medical bills that cause poverty. Some hereditary illnesses can cause multi-generational poverty---and poverty, in turn, worsens the multi-generational illness. Mental illness can cause poverty. Poverty can contribute to a host of conditions from depression to drug abuse to delayed diagnosis and treatment of curable diseases. People who live in poverty may not care enough about themselves or their own future to use even available health resources. Poor folks may care about themselves, but find that it is impossible to get the kinds of treatment that other Americans, those lucky enough to work for the government or large employers, enjoy. When you are poor, the safety net often does not kick in until you are permanently disabled---which means permanently poor, too.

So, how will the latest Health Care Reform help the people I describe above? The woman with the kidney infection still will not have enough money for copayments. Since the bill sets no limits on deductibles and other barriers to care, many people will find themselves forced to buy insurance they can not afford to use.

The woman with the schizophrenic son may find that her insurance has a ridiculously low annual limit for psychiatric care. The bill allows the federal government to decide what limits are acceptable, and it does nothing to keep the insurance industry from conspiring to set prices and benefits the same which eliminates consumer choice. Remember, the insurance industry currently is exempted from anti-trust rules.

The woman with the unplanned pregnancy still will not be able to get an abortion. The first man with the blood clot will now have insurance, but it may only cover treatment at a hospital a couple of hours away, so there is a chance he will still code in the parking lot. His neighbor, who will also have insurance, may find that the closest emergency room in not on his plan, and so he may find himself stuck with a big bill, even though he is insured.

The next two people are the success stories of HCR. The woman with Grave’s Disease will be diagnosed promptly and start treatment. Let’s just hope that living in working class poverty does not make it impossible for her to pay her deductible and copayments. The retired widow with breast cancer will probably get life saving treatment---but she may have to drive quite a distance in order get to participating provider hospitals and doctors.

The man with sleep apnea may or may not get timely treatment. His new insurance plan is likely to throw up a bunch of obstacles to keep him from getting that sleep study---like a five to ten thousand dollar deductible---- and there is no guarantee that they will cover CPAP or other treatments even if he is diagnosed. Being tired and sleepy all the time, he may not have the energy to fight his insurer for the care he needs.

The unwed mother still faces a lifetime of poverty, since making birth control easier to afford will not change the underlying problems that lead her to become pregnant.

Though the Democrats may have started out with good intentions, I am afraid that they will end up just like Schwarzenegger in California, making decisions which are politically expedient in the short run while ignoring the real opportunities which we have to improve the lives of all Americans. They will do this, because they believe---and have persuaded a bunch of Americans to believe---that folks living in poverty do not count. They are not heard. They are not seen. They are invisible.

V. Just the Facts

Sadly, we may have seen the best that our elected leaders can offer us in the way of health care reform. In our current political climate, where it takes hundreds of millions of dollars to get elected president, only money talks. If we want to have a seat at the bargaining table, we need to make sure that the one with the most popular support, not the one with the biggest coffer, gets elected.

[bobbolink]

1. Very important--thank you very much! We are ignored, and need YOUR advocacy, if we are to survive.

As I said in another post, what I'm becoming aware of is that a growing segment of the homeless population are those of us who are chemically sensitive. Human bodies aren't made to withstand the assalts of chemicals that we are exposed to, and we are the canaries in the mine fields.

Yet, we are ignored, and left to suffer in our cars, in sub-zero weather, and then heat.

Nobody wants to hear us.... we aren't the "pets"... the preferred groups.

We aren't Vets.

We aren't "the working poor".

We don't have small children.

WE ARE THE LEFTOVERS....THE IGNORED.

WHO IS GOING TO HEAR US?

[Demeter]

2. Our Leaders Can't Handle The Truth

and the truth is, we need new leaders who can. Obama, alas, isn't one of the new leaders, he's the same old, same old in a new wrapper.

[timeforpeace]

4. No, Obama is different, and will solve these problems. He said he would and we should believe him.

[dflprincess]

18. Sure, because he was so receptive to listening to us and finding

a real solution to the health care mess this time around. :sarcasm:

[ChiciB1]

42. I Want Obama to Succeed, But At This Point In Time... OBAMA Is NOT

different! He said A LOT OF THINGS, we believed A LOT OF THINGS, and A LOT OF THINGS aren't being done!

I do realize he's just once person, but he's a person WITH A LOT OF POWER, and hundreds of outlets to tap into for much more help!! Much more focus COULD be put on this, and many, many other issues that AREN'T getting attention!

But YOU are free to "believe" as you wish!

[Donnachaidh]

52. believe him? Really? So WHY did he do backroom deals with Pharma?

WHY didn't he push for a public option, when he promised that in the primaries?

Our failure is that we DID believe him, and then let him blow us off.

[G_j]

3. best post of 2010

:applause:

[bobbolink]

5. I agree completely.

The question is, will many listen?

[maryf]

7. and likely to stay that way for a while!

K&R

[LWolf]

6. Excellent post, thank you.

How can we make sure that the one with the most popular support gets elected?

[Warpy]

8. Kick

I've lived some of it and witnessed the rest.

I wish I could recommend this more than once.

[G_j]

9. K

[Rhiannon12866]

10. Thanks for posting this! K&R from me...

This is a real concern of mine, as it is for countless Americans, and the stories make my blood run cold. I've been sick, needed a chest X-Ray on Thursday to rule out pneumonia, and my first thought was the cost. I have no health insurance, haven't since 2007, and it's scary. :-(

[Diclotican]

11. McCamy Taylor

McCamy Taylor

After reading this, I'm so glad I'm glad I'm living in a country where you have a "single payer" system, where you pay your stay at the hospital when you pay your taxes...

And after reading this, I'm also very glad I'm living in a country, where the doc I have had experience with have been good to keep the "warning" on when something is not right.. Have had some high blood pressure for some year now.. And got the word from my doc to how to try to get it down.. Eat better, and to excises far more... Lost 10kg last year, and my blood pressure is almost down to where it should be by now...

Now I'm waiting for an MR for my right knee who I busted a year ago but who healed for a while, Not good but I can walk on it.. And then I might also had to have an operation on the knee to fix what is wrong... Off course, i doesn't pay for the operation, because we have a system where we pay that type of medical help by our taxes every month and year..

I really hope one day that every single american also can have a type of single payer system where you all can get the medical help, without loosing your home, your farm, what you have worked for every day in your life.. This histories you write down here is so tragically, and so manageable to avoid, by having a single payer option... When we in Europe managed to make it the right, why can't you in the mig thy US manage it too? It is so sad to read this histories.. I are not fluent enough in english to express what I really is feeling here... But Im sad, really sad about this..

On the other hand if you had an public option on health care you might have to use far more money on that, than on war all over the world.. If you had spend half what you spend on the military budget on an public healtcare.. US would have the best public health care in the world... Even in a country the size of your, half of the trillions given to Pentagon would go a long way

And yes, I do also have Asma, and are given medicin to use when I need it - it cost me 50 NK or 9.03 dollar for eatch Ventoline.. And if my asma is not to bad it is spend in a month.. Off course when the summer is coming I have to use it more, becouse I also got allergy.. But on the bright side I am at least not "dead"

Our system is far from perfect, and the doctors is faling missrabley sometimes.. But I wil prefer to have our "sosialiszed healt care" every day over "private health care" any day...

Diclotican

Diclotican

[bobbolink]

13. I don't know where you are, but fight to keep your health care. The corporations

are trying all over the world to take it away, and make their trillions.

[Diclotican]

15. bobbolink

bobbolink

Indeed, it is wort fighting for, a public option for health care. For the most part all our parties is in agreement that we _need_ to have a decent health care who are public founded.. Even tho our parties from the left to the right disagree of HOW we should do it...

And I'm living in Norway, a nice little country in the North of Europe.. Norway is maybe not the most known country in the world.. Sweden and Denmark ar far more known out in the world.. We are most known for our lutefisk, our oil, our Nobel Peace prize...And of course our Vikings Who when President Barack Obama was in Oslo made a mess out of everyone who wanted to be in the down-town area... A real mess with all the security in place.. But maybe necessary as he is a target for many...

Diclotican

[dflprincess]

17. For those of us in MInnesota

believe me, Norway is every bit as well known as Sweden or Denmark - actually more so as there are more Norwegians here than other Scandanavian groups (thought they have plenty of representation here).

Even those of us who are not of Norwegian descent know plenty of lutefisk jokes and, of course, the football team is the "Vikings".

:hi:

[Diclotican]

19. dflprincess

dflprincess

Of course you in Minnesota should know Norway, for all its wort half the Minnesotaens is from Norway, or are ancestors from pepole who emigrated to Minnesota the last 150 year. It is more americans of norwigian decent than its peopole in the whole of Norway...

Wel, good made Lutefisk is in fact a rather good meal if you ask me.. But bad lutefisk is... wel if you ever have tasted _bad_ lutefisk you know what it is...

Off course you must have a football team with the name Vikings in Minnesota:)

Diclotican

[pengillian101]

26. Hello Norway!

Nice to 'meet' ya, Diclotican! Both sides of my ancestors come from Norway - I'm 4th generation here in the US. They all settled in Northwest Wisconsin but some moved to Minnesota. Both Wisconsin and Minnesota has alot of Norske folk. Washington state has a large population also. Several of my folks here just recently traveled to meet relatives in Bergen :hi:

"But bad lutefisk is... wel if you ever have tasted _bad_ lutefisk you know what it is..."

I absolutely love lutefisk and lefse! But I just recently had some BAD! It was jellied straight from the grocer. Instead of looking like this it was just a bowl of jelly. Ugh.

[fascisthunter]

46. I Know What Lutefisk is....

not for me, that's all I will say.

[Diclotican]

64. fascisthunter

fascisthunter

Well, it IS an meal for the few.. I understand that

Diclotian

[fascisthunter]

70. My Apologies

did not mean to sound offensive. Just my personal taste buds...

[Diclotican]

72. fascisthunter

fascisthunter

No worry i know Lute fisk is somewhat special to eat - and to someone who are not acustumed to it, it really is a problematic meal to eat.. It was many years befor I could eat lutefisk withouth puke after... I was grown up before I liked lutefisk..

Often we got a somewhat more "child friendly" meal when we had lutefisk on the meny on the great hollidays...

Diclotican

[pengillian101]

87. Post #26 was for you, Diclotican

Sorry that it got mis-addressed.

Lutefisk and lefse. Ya, sure! Here's a funny Minnesota video for ya.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5QLtPLBAWk

[Lydia Leftcoast]

63. Hej, Diclotican!

Bestefaren og bestemoren min kom fra Norge.

Norge er et vakkert land med gode folk.

[Diclotican]

65. Lydia Leftcoast

Lydia Leftcoast

Hei, Ja vi er heldige med naturen:). Og vel de fleste er vel også ganske greie ja. Hvor er dine besteforeldre fra da?

Hey, yes we are blessed with some good nature.. And most of us is pretty nice to wisit that is true.. Hwere in Norway was your grandparetns from then?

Diclotican

[Lydia Leftcoast]

73. Bestemor kom fra Mosjøen, og Bestefar fra en øy i Trondelag

(Jeg snakker bare litt norsk.)

[Diclotican]

75. Lydia Leftcoast

Lydia Leftcoast

Ok, your familiy is from that part of Norway:)..

I understand your norwigian good.. And I guess if you use it more you would be better at it to.. Even tho It might be somewhat difficult to use it in US.

But I can give you a link, to NRK, our "PBS" who also have a large parts of things you might can learn a little more about Norwigian
(by the way, NRK is maybe more like BBC than PBS as it is a public founded broadcasting system) http://www.nrk.no/ You can also have podcast if you want it, if you want to listen to news and programs withouth been with the computer

Diclotican

ps, and if you dosent understand what it says, you can allways use "google":P

[Lydia Leftcoast]

78. Tusen takk!

n/t

[pengillian101]

102. I am so ignored in this thread.

...

[LibDemAlways]

56. I had the pleasure of visiting Oslo (briefly) last year off of a cruise ship.

In a couple of hours using your public transportation system I managed to make my way to the world-famous Vigeland Sculpture Park, the National Gallery, and City Hall. Beautiful city and I know I only scratched the surface. I realize this is off topic, but just want to let you know you are fortunate to live in such a wonderful place.

[Diclotican]

66. LibDemAlways

LibDemAlways


Yes, Oslo can be a really nice place to be as in The Vigland Park, our national Gallery and the City Hall.. Well we are maybe not the mot beautifully city on the earth - until the 1960s we was rather poor here, and it shows.. But if some of the new buildings, a whole new part of the City in fact ever grow up to fruition it might be a nice place.. The whole area between the main train station in Oslo and Ekeberg would be very different in 2020-2025 if we manage to build it as it should be...

And yes, I'm lucky i am living in a nice corner of the world - because we are pretty lucky to live here..

Next time you are in our neck of the woods, please feel free to PM me on DU, I might show you some other nice parts of Oslo as I am living right outside the City:)I guess you more or less was sailing along where Im living:P

Diclotican

[LibDemAlways]

68. If you ever come to Los Angeles (though I cannot imagine why you would

want to) you are welcome to come see me as well.

Unfortunately we have very little public transit, nothing like the Sculpture Park, and our downtown is mostly populated by the very poorest among us. Lots of people "living" in cardboard boxes in the "richest nation on Earth." We do have a few public museums, but the nicest ones - the Getty Center and the Huntington Library and Gardens - were endowed by corporate robber baron multi-millionaires who made their money largely exploiting poor laborers as they built oil companies and railroads. The history of the US is very shameful.

You are fortunate to live in a place where people are guaranteed health care and the Nobel Peace Prize is awarded. I hope to be able to return one day and see more of your beautiful country.

LDA

[Diclotican]

77. LibDemAlways

LibDemAlways

Someday I might do that. Even tho for the moment I doubt I have the money to travel to US... And I know about the mostly lack of public transit system in most americans City... Wel I have my driver lisence so I guess I wil survive:P

You have your places, even tho it might be different from our Vigelandspark and so on..

And we have our share of poor pepole, mostly drug addicts who is living pretty bad... But what to do with pepole who for the most part have shoosen that parts on their own?.. No one force you to start using drugs.. It is a bad habit, who if treated right CAN and SHOULD be stoped... I don't know what to do, with peopole with drug addictions to be honest.. I have some ideas, but it might be for many little harsh to tell.... Not that I wil kill them if you belive that, but I have had the misfortune of been fu*** up really bad by a nabour of me, who is an drug addict... And he owe me money I guess I wil never get back.. And he allmoust stole my car too.. So the reputation for me about drug addicts is somewhat low...

Wel, all country have had their chare of robberbarons, who for the most part pillaged and stole what was not bolted down, or to big to tow away.. We have our chare here in Norway, specially at the chipping industry, who was one of the biggest assets we had under World War TWO.. And one of the reasons Norway after the war was never parts of the spoils the USSR got from the war - even that Stalin withouth doubt would been pleased had he been given Norway by the allied forces...

I maybe dosen't know really who glad I am, and who fortunate I am who are living in a small country, where I for the most part is given a healt care who are some of the best in the world - and it is FREE, even tho we do pay a lot of money by our taxes to get it right...

The reason becouse we was given the Nobel Peace Prize is first and foremost as Alfred Nobel himself pointed out, Norway had in modern time NEVER got to war with other nations!.. Even our occupying of East Greenland in 1928 ended peacefully becouse we got to the International Peace court instead of war - and lost totally in 1929, when the Corth was given Denmark the fully sovernity over Greenland.. And fined Norway more than One million Kroner.. (the total Budget in Norway was less than 1.000.000.00 in 1945..) The fine hurt, but we manged to salvage the friendship, and are today best of frends - specially against Sweden:)

Diclotican

[juno jones]

80. My godmother, my mom's best friend, was Norwegian.

As a child I loved her house, full of Trolls and color.
:)

[Diclotican]

85. juno jones

juno jones

Ah, the trolls:) Wel the folkstories is full of trolls, but in reality it is few trolls living in Norway today.. But at Hunderfosssen familiypark you might find some trolls even today http://www.hunderfossen.no/historien_om_hunderfossen/ The world of one of Norwigians best animators Ivo Caprino was coming to life there... And even have a 14 meter big Troll as the centerpise in the park... A pretty nice looking troll if I have to say it;)

Diclotican

[juno jones]

98. I hope to see it someday.

I have always wanted to see Norway. :hi:

[bobbolink]

90. Being a cradle Lutheran, I'm quite well aware of Norwegians!

:pals:

Although, personally, I will take a pass on the lutefisk... :hi:

You Scandanavians are a lot more human..... and we appreciate having the role models!

Thank you!

[Diclotican]

93. bobbolink

bobbolink

Okay, yes it is many who are lutherans, who for the most part was/is coming from scandinavia.. That be Sweden, Denmark og Norway..

I understand you when you want to take a pass on the lutefisk. But as I say, if you have a propper made lutefisk its good.. If you have a bad lutefisk, you get the different idea.. And I was more or less Grown up before I could like that meal... I was not that found of that whn I was a child, and have to eat that dish...

Wel, we are going a long way before we got what we have today.. If you look at Norway in 1912 when my grandpa was newborn, and Norway today... For the most part it cant be the same country...

And it is maybe becouse our politicans of yesterday worked hard after world war two, to make a better life for everyone.. After all we had a lot to rebuild, and had the chance to rebuild it to a better future.. And we do have made a far better country of today, than we had yesterday...

Nice to be seen as an role model for what US could do.. Not that I belive that US would have our system, your history and past is to different.. But a sort of public founded healt care would be posible.. Even for a country like your own..

Diclotican

[bobbolink]

96. I'll be right over to try out your good lutefish... ^_^

Yes, I totally believe that the effects of WWII is what woke up so much of Europe to being more humane, and caring for others. Its sad that it took that, but it is what I think happened.

Which means that as the younger generations take over, and those who lived through that time die off, there is danger of losing that commitment. I hope you can get through to younger people WHY the country believes as it does.

What we have in this country that is a good model is the Native American culture. I am down in New Mexico now, enjoying the Indian dances, and visiting with some Indian friends. We have so much to learn from them!

Last summer, I met a couple from France who came with me to an Indian Feast day, and they were mesmerized. I suspect you would be, also. If you were ever to come to visit, I would love to share this aspect with you... an America so few know or understand.

[Enthusiast]

47. Diclotican, we are already convinced.

The insurance industry simply has too much influence to overcome.

[Diclotican]

67. Enthusiast

Enthusiast

Everything can be overcommed, if enough pepole is willing to take the risk of paying a little more taxes, and wage a little less wars... When US can have what the next 20 nations of the "country who use most money on military" combined.. Then you also can get a decent healt care... An public one hat is...

It is allways about what you, and your leaders want..

Dicotican

[Enthusiast]

88. But Dicotican, that is why President Obama

was elected. We voted for less war and more health care. Yet we still have no cooperation from our elected representatives. This is why many of us are so angry. We are angry because the politicians ignore our wishes completely.

We are willing to pay more taxes for health care but not for more war.

[Diclotican]

89. Enthusiast

Enthusiast

I agree.. But still Obama is far better than McCain/Palin ticket i would say..

And you have a hell of a work ahead of you before US got an public health care plan Im afraid of.. Many who would benefit from a healt care dosent know or dosent care about a public health care. And are grown up in a time when just the word "socialist" could mark you for life... Something I have seeing a lot on american web sides when a public health care option are on the table.. Then the "red scare" are there all over again... Even when in fact many country, who dosent is in that box have a healt care who are more or less public exist...

Diclotican

[Joe the Liberal]

103. I envy you.....

I'd rather live in Scandinavia than here.

[laughingliberal]

12. Excellent, as always. And very close to stories I saw all the time as a nurse

And too close to a story I am living now. Thanks for telling our stories.

[bhikkhu]

14. K&R

[Greyhound]

16. K&R. When was the last time a thread like this, dealing with poverty,

got the attention it deserved?

[ChiciB1]

41. Oh, I'm So Tempted To Bring Up A Name... But Won't Because Of The

reaction it will get! But there "were" some who wanted to "eyeball" poverty front & center! If it could have gotten done in a proper way I can't say, but the ISSUE was being pushed! Obviously not even enough from him... but it WAS in the conversation most of the time!

POVERTY here in our own country is a travesty and growing! I wonder how many people here DON'T KNOW someone who lives in poverty! I've seen A LOT OF IT, and I'm seeing it becoming bigger and bigger!

Some really "stupid" people make really "stupid" comments such as "how can they be living in poverty, they're overweight!" Truth is, beans and potatoes as a staple food will make a person gain weight! And there a lot of "like" foods that do the same thing!

Thank you for posting this, not only should it be at the TOP of our agenda, we should start WAKING UP to what it's doing to not only whole families, but especially what it's doing to the elderly and children!!

What do we see most of on MSM?? How the RICH are getting into trouble and "WOW" isn't that just the MOST IMPORTANT stuff we need?? It makes me sick! I must stop, I'm getting too upset about this and may end up saying stuff I shouldn't!

Thanks again... :thumbsup: :shrug:

[bobbolink]

95. I strongly suspect its because it is about health care.

No, poverty alone wouldn't get this attention.

It just isn't "sexy" enough.

[NMMNG]

20. If I didn't already have a pounding migraine,

I would have developed one just reading that. Our "health care system" is a travesty. It's all a f*cking travesty.

[Odin2005]

21. K&R I am fortunate that the disabled here in Minnesota get free healthcare.

I wouldn't be able to pay for my medication, psychotherapy, and dentist visits otherwise

[Divine Discontent]

24. my bro is fully disabled, & the state of FL just took away dental for everyone & the OTC supplies

that he was getting each month to cope with his progressive MS. This country is losing it's morality as another VP of a firm gets a bigger year end bonus...

this country is turning to shit.

we must keep fighting them - and we all know who 'them' is - GOP & corporate-whore Dems.

Only true progressives will get my $.....

[wellstone dem]

51. Get ready to fight for Minnesota Care during the next legislative session

you can be Tim Pawlenty will have a target on it.

[Odin2005]

84. The Tool will take it away from my COLD DEAD HANDS.

I go and lobby my state reps and senators in a month and they will be getting a piece of my mind.

[pengillian101]

27. disabled here in Minnesota get free healthcare

Yes, but not once you receive Medicare - then MN Care drops you.

[wolfgangmo]

76. Not all of us.

I was denied care by my insurance company after a car accident. I am self employed and my insurance company pulled an IME within 8 weeks of the accident. Their old, sick, couldn't stand up and made multiple factual errors in his report, said that I was fine. I have an MRI that shows crushed vertibrae. I am partially paralized and can no longer do the job I used to.

And because my wife (on paper) makes too much money (They also quoted the insurance company IME in their denial), we do not qualify for MNcare. And the real irony here is that we are on the verge of losing it all, my wifes clinic (she's a doctor), our house, everything, simple because I cannot get the surgery I need to get back to work. A worse irony is that less than 3 hours drive is a country that would have covered this surgery immediately with no out of pocket cost to me.

Minnesota is no paradise.

[juno jones]

82. I am sorry.

Every one desreves care. I am tired of seeing my friends and family go without.

[pengillian101]

101. Not all of us.

When you say "And because my wife (on paper) makes too much money (They also quoted the insurance company IME in their denial), we do not qualify for MNcare."

Do you mean you are not legally married and yet they count her income as joint income? They should only count it as household income, I would think. But that's just my thought.

MNCare is for folks that have an employer that is small and doesn't offer it, or else if you are unemployed. I was on it for a couple years. The premium is according to your income. Hope that helps. All info is on-line. Best to ya.

http://www.dhs.state.mn.us/main/idcplg?IdcService=GET_DYNAMIC_CONVERSION&RevisionSelectionMethod=LatestReleased&dDocName=id_006255

[Desertrose]

22. Excellent post.....everyone should read this!

I haven't had health insurance since my divorce in the mid-90's. (Am trying to hang on til I hit 65...only a few more years to go.) There are definitely some things I need to have checked but am not for fear of the old "pre-existing condition" but mostly because I can't afford the tests or doctor.

These stories are heartbreaking and more to the point- they don't HAVE to happen. It is insane how we treat our citizens who are not able to make it financially. First off, no one should EVER be homeless and everyone should be able to get healthcare & meds that they need TO LIVE!!!

I hate what this country has done to those who have no resources through whatever reason....and to blame them? Its ridiculous and criminal. Doesn't anyone remember "do unto others as you would have them do unto you"?

[Divine Discontent]

23. bastards... all of em... anyone against universal care for every citizen - you're nothing but!

[leftstreet]

25. K&R

[nosmokes]

28. Thanks so much for a great post

[Hannah Bell]

29. k/r The vast majority of problems in the world have the same root cause.

[Scruffy1]

30. You get an A+

What a wonderful post. I only wish I could state the case as well.

[JNelson6563]

31. I have lived through many of these things

and it is shame that is the constant companion of these experiences in America.

I wish I could give this more than one rec.

Julie

[Bluenorthwest]

32. Wow. An important post.

And so very well done.

[NikolaC]

33. K&R

Excellent post. What you wrote needed to be said and heard.

[Echo In Light]

34. rec

[N_E_1 for Tennis]

35. REC + 10,000

Thank you for this OP.

[winyanstaz]

36. K & R for a very important story...I wish to add my own....

You left out the story of the widow's and orphans and war vets.
After giving your all to you nation...you find out that Congress has sold you out.
You cannot go to the base for medical care..even though you have "insurance" alright. You and your children have to go to a private Dr.
However..the co-pay is $150.00 a visit and that is simply not possible on a widow's or vet's pension. Not to mention the co-pay on the medications. It doesn't help that most also lose ALL their social security due to the law Congress passed that you can only collect "One" check from the government (unless your a member of Congress)...and so you must chose the larger one..but you cant have both. it doesn't even matter if you earned social security for 20 years working outside the military. (there are a few exceptions to this rule)
This is a large part of the reason that returning wounded soldiers are dying under America's bridges and on our streets.
They cannot afford their own medical care anymore..after giving their all and maybe even a couple of arms or legs to their nation..because they are "no longer active duty".

[midnight]

37. Those who slapped themselves on the back for this HISTORICAL health care bill-know.

They know about all the reasons you posted about. The tragedies that will continue because they made deals with the insurance co. and pharmacy co. I hope those that read your posts will keep these issues in mind when claims about how its going to bring x amount of people into the insurance pool, and how it's going to get rid of pre existing insurance blocks towards getting affordable medical treatment. The status quo has not changed only the language.

[juajen]

38. I thank you for speaking for my two unemployed sons, who

naturally have no health insurance and haven't for the many years they have worked. They live in a "right-to-work" state, which should more truthfully be called "right-to-starve" state. We will never get a handle on poverty until we once again embrace unions. We will always have the greedy "Boss Tweeds" among us. The only solution to poverty is a plethora of unions and we need them strong, and we need them today. God help us! This country has no place else to go.

[BlancheSplanchnik]

39. so tired of the injustice

so many injustices, so damned tired of it.

[Gman2]

40. We need a BADDASS poor peoples black panthers. And we need to threaten.

[mntleo2]

45. Burn Baby! Burn! ...

...this was the mantra screamed in the streets beginning in the Watts riots, but carried on with the writings by Eldridge Cleaver, Bobby Seales, and Huey Newton. After trying to "change things within" and begging, pleadng for over 300 years of poverty and discrimination, this is the conclusion that these enlightened radicals came to, "Burn Baby! Burn!"

As a young white woman reading Cleaver's conclusions, it shocked me and I vehemently disagreed with him then but ...now after seeing what they saw and some 35 years down the road, I suspect that this last resort is what these elitist idiots will only hear ~ which is why they are terrified of us and why they keep enacting laws and policies that try to hobble the poor. This time I do not think it will take no steenkin' 300 years ... sadly ...

Cat In Seattle

[Doctor_J]

53. If you try to promote anything more aggressive than hand-wringing

and phone-calling around here, you'll get scolded.

[truedelphi]

69. Believe me - many in the Black Panthers didn't start out saying

"Burn Baby Burn." They started out having day care centers and food pantries, and providing escorts for people walking through bad neighborhoods. They struggled with the idea that not helping people who were illiterate made for high unemployment rates, so they tried to figure out how to help.

But "Burn Baby Burn" made for a much needed headline - so that when police activities like the massacre of the sound asleep Black Panther members in Chicago in the early seventies went down, most whites could comfort themselves with the notion that the Big Bad Black leaders got what they deserved. (Forensic evidence later showed that the Panthers got off only one shot, against the Chicago Police officers firing over 200 shots!)

[bobbolink]

92. 'Twas ever thus....

Quite-spoken people are always ignored when they are trying for change.

Then, along come the RAGING ones, then all of a sudden.... the quieter ones are somehow more "acceptable".

I saw that at the time with Malcolm X and Martin Luther King.

And, yes, it IS building...

And, it won't be pretty...

All because so many "progressives" don't want to hear us now.......

[bobbolink]

91. I agree with you completely! The problem is...

if we speak up at all, we ALREADY get told, right here on DU, that we have a "bad attitude".

Yet, if we speak quietly, we are ignored.

We are easily brushed aside, and it's BECAUSE we haven't been loud enough.

What we need is a Malcolm X of poverty, to gather poor folk together, and to put the fear of gawd into those who insist on ignoring us.

[Starry Messenger]

43. k & r

[mntleo2]

44. Blaming the poor ...

...seems to be the mantra for politicians and the elite in the way they make law and create policies. It is just fine for a rich white man to steal billions from We The People, he gets to retreat to his mansion when he is caught. But for a welfare mom, if she does not cross every 't' or dot every 'i' she faces prison even though study after study has shown the meager income she and her children live on is not enough to even pay rent for a studio apartment. See Making Ends Meet a study made within 1 year after Welfare Reform was enacted. http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_0_17?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=making+ends+meet+how+single+mothers+survive+welfare+and+low-wage+work&sprefix=Making+ends+Meet+">Amazon. In there the professors of Taxas State University found that the only way a low income mother could make it was to "cheat" such as her parents pay some of the family bills, a boyfriend helps out by living with them, etc.

Welfare moms ...when are we going to say mother work of raising her children IS "work"? When are we going to admit that she is raising the next generation to take care of us, run our country, pay our Social Security, and fight in our wars? Developed countries with enlightenment see this as important work, but the U.S.? We blame the mother, as we did in 1996 passing The Personal Responsibility Act (Welfare Reform) for all our social ills condemning families to permanent poverty for the rest of their lives. BTW, this act was written by a rich entitled white man from the Heritage Foundation named Robert Rector. Meanwhile, as the Rectors of the world and their minions of ignorant supporters rich and poor, see no problem with this and the rich banker who decimated entire states are left with their millions to cry in their champagne about how We The People hate them.

And then poor adults are left to fend for themselves, often those who have worked their butts off, raised families, volunteered in their communities, left to live in their cars in freezing weather.

There is a class war brewing and the sooner we recognize it the better. The people in power who caused it, are terrified of us deep in their hearts, which is why they keep passing laws and making policies that hobble us in hopes that they can render us powerless. But it does not have to be. There are more of the poor than any other class and when things get so bad that we have few other choices, we WILL come together. This is always the way it happens in history and it will be the way it will happen here. If we acknowledged this terror and used it to make things better for all of us, it could change our world. Let us pray that it is not at the end of a gun but the end of a pen, a viral

That is, unless the rich quit being tax deadbeats and realize blaming us instead of taking responsibility for their cause in the misery of their own country ... but they never will admit it unless they are so terrified they realize they BETTER face the music or they will go the way of the Marie Antoinettes of the world. Pray to the gods this is not what our children and we adults face!

Cat In Seattle

[wellstone dem]

48. powerful powerful post! Thank you so much!

[starzdust]

49. Yes I hear you...

I am rapidly becoming one of the working poor. I am a teacher.
I can't afford to pay all my medical bills and for the
medications my doctors have prescribed; high blood pressure,
high cholesterol, sleep apnea, obesity, severe depression with
dysthymia, peripheral neuropathy in my toes, had carpal tunnel
surgery.
That's why I want to die.   

[asdjrocky]

50. Small fixes won't work.

Democrat or Republican seems to matter little as to how the poor are treated in the last 30 years and anyone that can't see that is simply blinded by partisanship.

The system is corrupt and broken and it must come down.

[mdmc]

54. As someone who works 50 hrs. per week and has health insurance

I want to kick and reccommend.

I CANT AFFORD MEDICAL TREATMENT THAT I NEED TO KEEP FROM BEING DISABLED!

[juno jones]

83. +1 n/t

[JoeyT]

55. +1

Wish I could rec more than once.

[maryf]

59. me too, so I kick! nt

[TheBigotBasher]

57. Very very well written.

A disgrace that this is happening in the richest economy on Earth.

[colsohlibgal]

58. It's Maddening

I hear, from Obama and others, all the time about "affordable" health care. Virtually no one ever asks these "leaders" what that means. Affordable for one is not affordable for another - like those people having to choose what to go without between heat, food, and medicine. Affordable is subjective to the max, it's inane to use that term to try to get people to support their health company bailout.

If we had a real mainstream media these days they would have called them on this worthless modifier. Bill Gates and people like him can afford about anything, most of us can afford to live varying levels of a safe and comfortable life, others not so much, as that classic photo of a woman aging much too fast shows. BTW hundreds and thousands are transitioning from the haves to the have nots weekly.

Obama knows the poor, disadvantaged and downtrodden are out there, all the politicians do, left, middle, and right. In the end they choose to reward those with big bucks. The poor lose out, the politicians (all but a very tiny few) go along with this cold approach but put it out of their mind. The stench in DC keeps getting worse and Obama hasn't helped all that much, very disappointing.

[glitch]

60. Thank you for keeping DU an awesome place to check in for real, well-written information. K & R nt

[alp227]

61. More health care = far more compassionate than to make the sick "die quickly"

You just proved Rep. Alan Grayson's controversial point. It's time to end the government's long-standing wealthfare for the health care-robbing corporations.

[DisgustedInMN]

62. As far as I can see...

... Obama hasn't yet, and doesn't appear to be likely to do a damn thing to make the situation better.

What a HUGE disappointment.

[sushi]

71. Having read this whole thread

I remember thinking last year, during the campaign and then the election, that Americans seem to expect so much from Obama. He is after all a politician, and after he won he HAD TO move to the middle. He doesn't have a magic wand. There's an opposition to deal with.

Norway's population is small. I think it must be MUCH easier to give healthcare to all citizens in small countries, like Norway, Denmark, etc. than 300+ million people.

I definitely believe that eating well (the right things) and limiting food intake, and exercising help keep the doctor away, so fast food is not part of our diet. Isn't fast food very popular in the USA?
I have to be very bossy because my husband is a diabetic. Sometimes we stray, but then it's quickly back to normal.

[Diclotican]

74. Sushi

Sushi

Of course it is far more easy to give a public health care to small country like my own, who have 4.8 mill people, than to US who have 300+ million.. But IT IS suitable if US just got down from all the war mongering they are doing.. If they had spend half what they spend on military, they would have an health care that most country would envy.. It is just an matter of what you use your money on.. Norway doesn't have a great military power to wage wars with, but we do have a health care most americans would find amazing if they needed it.. Mr Moore was also here in Norway, to shoot film to "sicko" but decided to not use what he was filming here in Norway - in his film.. Mostly because americans would find it stupid that any country could have that type of welfare and health care system... He even pointed out the fact that the Police are using Puddles in their work - in fact Puddles is some dam good drug dogs compared to many other dogs... But are not exactly the largest dogs there is..

But the Way from what was the fact in the early 1800s, to the system we have today in most Scandinavian Country's have been long and peril.. It have not been a easy task to build up one of the best health care system in the world.. When my grandfather on my fathers side was born, in 1912, the death rate of children was high, compared to what is the fact today.. And a new born survived the first couple of years, it still had a long way to go, before illness and sickness could take your life.. When my grandfather died in 1997, almost 90 year old, he had have some bad health a couple of years - but he had for the most part had a good life.. When he was born Norway was one of the poorest country in the world. When he died Norway was one of the richest country in the world - and to boot have no debt to other nations... In fact many country owe Norway money...

Diclotican

[sushi]

86. Well, I'm afraid

Washington feels that the US has to go on war mongering, spend money on military pursuits, meddling in other countries' business, and keeping hundreds of bases around the world. That costs a lot of money! Obama decided to send more troops to Afghanistan. Somebody of TV said that Obama is 'becoming a Republican!' LOL

Looks like healthcare is not the top of the list. That's why I think people should just take better care of themselves (stop smoking, drink less, eat less and quit eating so much junk food) and exercise more. With a little luck there's no need to see the doctor much at all, except for the dentist every six months.

Does Norway still have a lot of oil? How cold does it get there? Here in Australia, we have winter too, but very mild.

[Diclotican]

99. sushi

sushi

The funny about this is that US always have money to go to war, spending money of being the most mean military in the world, and to more or less meddling in everyone else's business if they want to meddle.. Sometimes they do it right, as they did when they supported the democratic Western Europe under the cold war.. They could have just said, after world war two - clean up your own mess, we are going home.. They doesn't did that, and a friendship between Europe, and US was made. A friendship who even survived 8 year with GWB... Even that it cost a lot...

When it come to mr Obama, I doubt he is an republican - by any standards he is still an democrat - but he have to make it possible so the US can go out of Afghanistan, with some "honor" at least.. And mostly because if the US is loosing That area of the world, then it Will be a hell to pay later.. It is a Catch 22 scenario.. If you doesn't do something you are screwed.. If you do, you are still screwed big time.. And Obama have in both Iraq and Afghanistan that type of problems, if you do, you are doomed, if you doesn't, you are still doomed.. He got two wars who it is no easy answer to what to do.. Iraq is maybe the most "easy" way to go out of, but Afghanistan... Mr GWB really got US screwed big time when he decided to go to war with Iraq and Afghanistan.. And he, and his friends is making all of US a leafing stock all the way to the bank..

You got a long way to a longer and heal tier way if you eat less, quit eating to much junk food, drink less and exercises little more. I lost 10 kg after I stop eating so much junk-food, and my doc liked my blood pressure FAR better now, then he did a year ago. If you are one of the healthy lucky one you might not need to se a doc in many years, but it is ALWAYS a smart move to go to doctors now and then, to se if everything is "Ok". Even if its just the annual checkup you go to.. I do that every year and most of the times I just got "ok" and nothing more.. But then again, I doesn't have to pay a premium for doing it.. Just what a trip to the doctors cost.. like 200 KR and so on.. And even my medicine (allergy and amsa) doesn't cost a lot because it is on recept, dvs, the County and the State pay most of the price (fylkeskommunen og staten) I think I pay between 20-50 KR for my asma medicine, and maybe 100 KR for a months worth of allergy medicine.. On the other hand if I choose the free Allergy medicine, I have to pay 140 kr a month.. But because it is "conical" then I can get it cheaper....

Yes we still have a lot of oil in the North sea I guess, 30-50 Year .. Or at least 150 year worth of Gas, so we should have some money in the bank the next 100 year or so.. And our government have also been smart enough to put some of our money in the bank, to bad times.. And today we have some money in the bank, even that it was hit hard by the crash last year.. But it Will recover I guess... And I guess it also is to point out, we are not involved in most wars.. Even that we are involved in Afghanistan as part of the NATO force there.. But it is complicated, and many Norwegians doesn't see the point of norway been part of it at all..

It can be cold here.. Since Christmas it have been -12-15 C outside.. And it is reported that in the weeks ahead it can go deeper to -40 degrees in some parts of the area I'm living in.. So It will be COLD the next month...


Diclotican

[juno jones]

79. Thank you. K&R.

Great essay and well put together. You mention many of the realities that poor people face in this country and discuss the subject well.

The worst of it is the invisibility. The way people can talk about the poor in front of them like they weren't even there. For many we are furniture, a convience, a hobby. The rich rarely have to account for themselves. The poor are constantly means tested.

I am an adult. I work for a living and I want a place at the table too.

PS: We need the advocacy of the middle class. Our lives are much the same as yours except a matter of financial degree. You are one paycheck or two from becoming us. Like the cloaked figure in the danse macabre, I tell you we all have the potential to experience this and ask you to use your time well as people who, due to their relative status, will be heard and considered. Allow us to talk to you and convey our needs. Accept us as responisble adults. We need help, not victorian-style pity.

[lastliberalintexas]

81. Even worse is being working class and sick in America

Not that I'm advocating being poor, mind you, but I know a couple of working/lower middle class families who have had severe financial issues because of medical problems. The truly poor are usually covered by Medicaid, though of course that has its own pitfalls as well. The working poor are often too rich to qualify for even that much help.



And before anyone attacks, my solution is not to take away from the poor, it is to ensure that the working poor and middle class have access to Medicare/Medicaid programs as well.

[bobbolink]

94. Oh, yes, it's always the poor muddleclass, isn't it?

You ALREADY have all the attention, why in the world are you so ready to denigrate ONE post speaking on our behalf?

Your ignorance of Medicaid... where to start.....

[diamidue]

97. I understand what you are saying.

I have no problem with the poor getting help with medical. But both of my children just had their health insurance rise from $115 to $195 a month for no apparent reason. They both are working minimum wage jobs and scarcely getting by. I have to pay some of their bills, and slip them money for food.

On the other hand, they have a cousin, who has 3 children, who gets over $800 a month in food stamps, free health care, and rent supplementation for her family. Her live-in boyfriend has a full time job with good benefits.

A huge chunk of our income goes to paying taxes. These taxes pay for the benefits of my cousin and others like her.

Sometimes I just wonder about the fairness of it.

[raccoon]

100. Great post. I'd rec it if I could. nt