Antone's Nightclub
They Do It Because They Can
RECEIVED Mon., Aug. 24, 2009
Dear Editor,
Let’s face it: The insurance/drug company/doctor/hospital complex has been strangling us in the USA for way too long [“Point Austin: Let Them Eat Sprouts!” News, Aug. 21].
And the reason is nothing new – because they can. They’ve been allowed to do it. They have the power.
Similar to the mortgage mess, the education rip-offs, the oil barons, the many banks, and the investment “pros," when left unwatched, where laws aren’t enforced, when (not-so-rugged?) individualism seems to be all that matters, people steal. They take stuff. Duh. (Yes, Ayn Rand – thank you Michael King, for a solid article.)
It’s not a question of “democracy” or “socialism” or anythingism. It’s a matter of honesty and the directions societies – people – decide to take and to give.
Maybe we’ll do a better job of policing ourselves? Maybe we’ll work together as a nation again? Maybe we’ll put “us” back in the U.S. again? Maybe we’ll stop losing so many dollars and lives to the greedy and gouging powers that be. We can start with the obscene health-scare mess. (Then: Social Insecurity, energy insecurity, affordable education …)
If too many of us continue as individuals only, self-this and self-that, we’re in for a tough(er) future. (Is that John Mackey talking in his sleep? “Let them eat cake. And carrots and sprouts. At Whole Foods atwholefoodsathofoos ….”)
Let’s face it: The insurance/drug company/doctor/hospital complex has been strangling us in the USA for way too long [“Point Austin: Let Them Eat Sprouts!” News, Aug. 21].
And the reason is nothing new – because they can. They’ve been allowed to do it. They have the power.
Similar to the mortgage mess, the education rip-offs, the oil barons, the many banks, and the investment “pros," when left unwatched, where laws aren’t enforced, when (not-so-rugged?) individualism seems to be all that matters, people steal. They take stuff. Duh. (Yes, Ayn Rand – thank you Michael King, for a solid article.)
It’s not a question of “democracy” or “socialism” or anythingism. It’s a matter of honesty and the directions societies – people – decide to take and to give.
Maybe we’ll do a better job of policing ourselves? Maybe we’ll work together as a nation again? Maybe we’ll put “us” back in the U.S. again? Maybe we’ll stop losing so many dollars and lives to the greedy and gouging powers that be. We can start with the obscene health-scare mess. (Then: Social Insecurity, energy insecurity, affordable education …)
If too many of us continue as individuals only, self-this and self-that, we’re in for a tough(er) future. (Is that John Mackey talking in his sleep? “Let them eat cake. And carrots and sprouts. At Whole Foods atwholefoodsathofoos ….”)
Jeff Tamarkin