ROSE Educational

Since healthcare is almost 20% of our economy, I have the impression that the major piece of legislation of the new Biden administration will be about HC reform. Similarly to Obama. But then we know that, even if a decent reform is passed, the major danger is what kind of opposition it will receive by way of the private media and grass-roots organizations, such as another TEA party. It all depends if polarization about major policies will continue to persist de facto between our two parties. If polarization persists, then it is inevitable that the "You build it and I destroy it" will be the favorite political game in the next several years. Obviously, I would like to be wrong.

Our public K-12 schools system was able to escape the sad destiny of our healthcare because it was organized in a period -mostly first half of 1900- when the trust of citizens for government was at a good level. Instead in the years when the other rich countries reorganized their HC systems, mostly in the 1960s-1980s, the US was full of anti-governmental propaganda, like McCarthyism and Reaganomics. So we lost many years that were ideal for a decent reorganization, and Pres. Johnson was able to enact only a small reform of HC, with Medicare/aid. Only with Obama we had another decent reform, but still rather limited, because during those 30+ years our private HC sector had plenty of time to solidify their power on services. So now we know why HC reform in the US will be so slow, because we lost all those precious years letting the "law of the jungle" prevail, at total loss for US commoners.

The diagnosis of our painful sickness is simple=> so many healthcare prices are decided by private sector. The therapy is also simple=> take away from private sector the possibility to unilaterally decide prices, by GOV intervention. But the problem is that the THERAPY IS REFUSED, and GOV is too weak to force them to take it. These people simply are used to big profits and do not want to reduce them, and so they use lobbyists' bribery to weaken the GOV, and prolong the status quo. The moneyed elite's greed wins over the well-being of big majority of population. Do you agree with this broad description of our HC situation?

The Founding Fathers were totally against the totalitarian power of the kings and of their nobility. That's why they based government on The People, and on the supporting principle of "All men are created equal". This supporting principle is opposite to that stating that the nobility is a separate caste entitled to hold the political power of a country, while the people has no such right. Good, these democratic principles, besides following plain human justice, are even in agreement with the evangelical principle of fraternity among the children of the same Father. But then comes the danger for a democracy to have the return of the 'nobility' by way of money. In fact, when in a country the few belonging to the economic elite own a large part of the income, then a new form of nobility is born. The principle of "All men are created equal' is de facto nullified when the income inequality among citizens becomes EXCESSIVE. Do you find this correct?

Hope some of you agree that, since our HC 'system' is deeply disorganized, no 'band-aid' change can be of any decent usefulness. Organization implies usually a central governing body, that coordinates all operations, for the benefits of the various 'organs'. Like the brain in a body. Corporations are called that way because they are modeled on how the body works, unified under the 'brain', that makes all parts to function in harmony. (Can you imagine Amazon without a central 'head'?) Instead our HC 'body' has the strange anomaly of being 'double headed'. One head in charge of the public sector of HC, mostly for older and poorer people, and the other head in charge of the private sector, dedicated to cover working people, about 2/3 of US population. Can we imagine the complication of having a two-headed body? No surprise that the two heads are often fighting with each other, trying to control a single body. So, hope you agree that the first move toward organization is to have only ONE HEAD, one brain in charge of the whole body. Ideas about how to make this happen, sooner than later?

Road-map for the US to have finally the top healthcare system. This is achievable by observing the traditional American values of organization and efficiency. 1) Admit that -contrary to what too many people think- we have a broken HC non-system in need of deep re-organization. 2) Avoid perfectionism as the enemy of the good enough, and organize first a much better system by imitating one or more of those already existing in the other rich countries. Their common denominator, among a variety of systems, is that standard HC is well regulated by Gov. like a public service or utility, and therefore with control of prices. 3) Improve gradually this already better system to the point of making it the best in the world, in all aspects, among all the other rich countries, while now our ranking is toward the bottom. Opinions?

A French philosopher wrote: "The greatest thoughts come from heart". I believe that what would really help us to imagine and then adopt a well organized HC, a well coordinated system worthy of this name, is to think out of the box and add 'passion' to calculations about short term goals of 'survival'. We need a 'vision' that allow us to program long term. And this 'vision' can only come from 'heart', that is from moral thinking. Even our old principles of "All men are created equal" and "Liberty and justice for all" could be sufficient for the purpose, if we think to all their implications. "Justice" is mostly referred to distributive justice, the slices of the 'cake'. A universal healthcare system would greatly add meaning to these old principles, and finally implement them in a better way.

Ideas for kitchen floor, or any floor. If your floor needs to be redone and you like to do it yourself with decent look, I came up with the idea to paint my floor with tiles, using grey background and then sponging dark grey, white and black on top. Then, the 'secret' to make it resistant to wear, is to paint 3 layers of transparent Polyurethane, semi-gloss, on top. Here is a sample of my tiles. Hope you find this useful.

As soon as we raise our eyes above the 'roofs' we meet the mystery. As soon as we ask ourselves: "How is it that mountain, that cloud exist", we then must logically conclude: "Because someone, who created himself, made them." So Aristotle already thought ... And then we just have to go to read "The infinite" by Leopardi ... and then the Gospels if we don't want to go confused => crazy ...

A little bit out of topic, but not that much. Do you think that if our major political positions, starting from POTUS, governors etc. had salaries comparable to those of the private sector, we would have the best possible individuals in charge of those positions? Or, instead no.... ?

All countries say, 'Hospitals are like utilities'. Wikipedia too. Strong evidence for us to do the same, and apply GOV control?

Average country spends abt. 1.6% of GDP for defense. We spend 3.2%, and results are there! We pay also the double in HC. Results??