Comments for the cognologist http://www.policyinsider.com cognology is the art of ideas Wed, 19 Aug 2009 13:30:59 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 Comment on Why is the US having trouble with health reform? by Jacques - Toronto http://www.policyinsider.com/?p=105&cpage=1#comment-6 Jacques - Toronto Wed, 19 Aug 2009 13:30:59 +0000 http://www.policyinsider.com/?p=105#comment-6 Scholars and health care experts miss the mark totally when debating the merits of one system over another well they fail to recognize the degree to which racial stereotypes in America affect opinions and public policy on socialized care and assistance. If the debate was only about reform and the best system, this would hardly be an issue. After all, the facts are undisputable that the US system if inefficient and spends more money on only a segment of its population when other countries do it for less and for their entire population. In the US, race is a factor in everything. The issue has less to do with the model or the media’s ratcheting of the right wing capitalist independent free market ideology and the anti big-government rhetoric than it does with American value system and their thinly veiled racism that sees non “real Americans” receiving an underserved publicly subsidized benefit. Americans value hard working individualism and associate themselves with the image of the thick skinned white American pioneer, self sufficient “pull yourself up by your britches” white Marlboro Man, independent of government meddling, and living up to dreams of their white forefathers who wrote a constitution with an ideology of white Christian supremacy. Its not that Americans are selfish or uncaring, but they are discriminate and when they see their identity changing, a segment of the population is ready to resist change and demand that we “go back to the way things were” and the way “our forefathers intended”. During the depression and right up to the 60s, the images of the underclass in need of social and charitable assistance were primarily whites, like those in soup kitchens, bread lines and Appalachian shacks. After the baby boom, whites have seeing their birth rates decline, and in the face of illegal immigration and increasing non white immigrants, “real Americans” fear they will now become a minority and be treated as such. “Real Americans” are insecure, feel threatened and are looking for assurance that they will be more entitled than non-whites. Providing socialized care to new Americans only adds insult to the shrinking “real (white) Americans” as they perceive lazy non-whites as undeserving immigrants, Mexicans, Hispanics, Blacks, Indians, and Muslims taking advantage of American goodwill. Real Americans would likely be more in favour of a public option if only American born persons were entitled. Until the definition of “real Americans” includes all Americans and they raise the veil on racism and white nationalism, the US will continue to struggle with health care reform or for that matter, any kind of regulatory reforms, even if it’s for their own good. Scholars and health care experts miss the mark totally when debating the merits of one system over another well they fail to recognize the degree to which racial stereotypes in America affect opinions and public policy on socialized care and assistance. If the debate was only about reform and the best system, this would hardly be an issue. After all, the facts are undisputable that the US system if inefficient and spends more money on only a segment of its population when other countries do it for less and for their entire population. In the US, race is a factor in everything.

The issue has less to do with the model or the media’s ratcheting of the right wing capitalist independent free market ideology and the anti big-government rhetoric than it does with American value system and their thinly veiled racism that sees non “real Americans” receiving an underserved publicly subsidized benefit.

Americans value hard working individualism and associate themselves with the image of the thick skinned white American pioneer, self sufficient “pull yourself up by your britches” white Marlboro Man, independent of government meddling, and living up to dreams of their white forefathers who wrote a constitution with an ideology of white Christian supremacy.

Its not that Americans are selfish or uncaring, but they are discriminate and when they see their identity changing, a segment of the population is ready to resist change and demand that we “go back to the way things were” and the way “our forefathers intended”. During the depression and right up to the 60s, the images of the underclass in need of social and charitable assistance were primarily whites, like those in soup kitchens, bread lines and Appalachian shacks.

After the baby boom, whites have seeing their birth rates decline, and in the face of illegal immigration and increasing non white immigrants, “real Americans” fear they will now become a minority and be treated as such. “Real Americans” are insecure, feel threatened and are looking for assurance that they will be more entitled than non-whites. Providing socialized care to new Americans only adds insult to the shrinking “real (white) Americans” as they perceive lazy non-whites as undeserving immigrants, Mexicans, Hispanics, Blacks, Indians, and Muslims taking advantage of American goodwill. Real Americans would likely be more in favour of a public option if only American born persons were entitled.

Until the definition of “real Americans” includes all Americans and they raise the veil on racism and white nationalism, the US will continue to struggle with health care reform or for that matter, any kind of regulatory reforms, even if it’s for their own good.

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