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Who’d Be Middle Class These Days?

My family doctor’s office now charges $500 an hour. Regular readers may remember a visit I made there in September. I related how it’s now controlled by a Catholic company, the ‘Holy Shit Holy Shit Medical Group’.[1]

This morning I received a bill for the visit. I now know how the company got its name. After opening the envelope, I exclaimed, “Holy Shit!”

It read, “Office visit – est 15 mins – $124.”

That’s $496 an hour – and that was only to see the practice nurse!

Two weeks ago I had my annual check up with the cardiologist at the local hospital. They demanded twenty dollars as soon as I entered the waiting room. When I queried this absurdity I was told, “All co-pays must be paid upfront now. It’s a rule of the hospital.”

But, what about the poor, I thought? Then I remembered. There are no poor people in America. There’s only the middle class.

That must be why America refuses to negotiate with North Korea. There are no middle class – only the elite and peasants. Despite the entreaties of China and the other three nations that make up the ‘six party talks’, America is refusing to return to the negotiating table until Kim Jong-il gives up his nuclear ambitions.

Not surprisingly, Kim isn’t keen to do as America insists. Every so often he wipes Uncle Sam’s face in the mud by a display of defiance that leaves the US more frustrated than before. Last week it was a grand display of its latest nuclear technology, especially laid on for a party of American scientists. They came home flabbergasted, with tales of an Iranian-like capability.

Today, we hear how US ally, South Korea, had its ears singed when military maneuvers got too close to North Korean territory. Kim Jong-il ordered his military to open fire with real shells.[2]

It really is time the United States stopped trying to rule the world. They’re hardly Mister Pickwick. Nothing succeeds like talking to people, and that is as true with Kim Jong-il as anyone else. China knows it; Russia knows it; in fact, the whole world knows it, apart from that particular section of the North American continent controlled from the White House.

The real truth is America doesn’t want to talk. It wants to invade. It deliberately takes an aggressive stance against other nations, then provokes a stand-off when the other side refuses to comply. Right now, the US is waiting the opportunity to take on Iran militarily, and it would love to march into North Korea and overturn the ruling elite there.

Sadly for the US warmongers, South Korea stands in the way. Any warlike intent on America’s part would provoke a huge military response from the North against the South, and Kim Jong-il likely has the capability to demolish Seoul before US bombers could even get a sniff of Pyongyang.

It’s also unlikely any US invasion would produce cheers and whoops of approval from North Korean citizens, unlike those Iraqis foolish enough to welcome the invasion of their country, little realizing what horrors it would bring them.

Kim Jong-il’s people are even more heavily brainwashed than their US counterparts. They’d fight to the death in support of their dictator, even if they hated him.

Of course, if America ever manages a successful invasion of North Korea, life would drastically improve for the citizenry. They’d all immediately become middle class.

Though, they still couldn’t afford to visit the doctor’s office.

[1] “Getting Healed By Jesus” Sparrow Chat, September 30th 2010

[2] “South Korea warns North of ‘enormous retaliation’ after attack” Guardian, November 23rd 2010

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4 Replies to “Who’d Be Middle Class These Days?”

  1. I just finished reading American Medical Avarice – written in the 60’s but still applicable if you adjust the figures for present day.

    Medicine as business doesn’t work for the customer – they keep you coming back forever.

    Speaking of medicine – watch National Geographic’s Stress, the Silent Killer. You will never be the same.

    I only get an hour at the library to do everything I need to do, so please forgive me if I am not as faithful a reader as I used to be.

  2. Medicine is strictly business now apart from my own family doctor who is a betrayal to his profession by sitting down and listening for as long as it takes.
    Where is it all going to end, RJA?
    I write of climate refugees today (my first encounter) and anticipate it is just the edge of the coming flood.
    if only the US (and Canada) would clean up their own houses and stop gawking at the neighbours.
    I wish.
    XO
    WWW

  3. I ain’t middle class RJ! I refuse to give up my place among The Great Unwashed.

    I love this quote from Eugene Debs (one of the US’s few socialist voices of the past) –

    While there is a lower class I am in it; while there is a criminal element I am of it; while there is a soul in prison, I am not free.

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