Tag: government

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Say Goodbye to OHIP

The pandemic has opened the door to disaster capitalism, that is, it has given the greedy rich an excuse to exploit the powerless and poor, all under the guise it is for our benefit.

Thus, here in Ontario, we are losing our long enjoyed health benefits.

We didn’t see the erosion coming of course, covid up ended everything in our lives. We have been too busy trying to survive.

Ah, but the wealthy always have their eyes, nose and ears tuned to dollar opportunities.

The pandemic has set back surgeries and the like, and this is true. There is a huge backlog.

But instead of funding our nurses and hospitals, the government had a better idea in mind. One that will ultimately end OHIP and make doctors, politicians, pharmaceutical companies. insurance companies and businessmen enormously wealthy. And the rest of us, screamingly poor and sick.

So they create a situation in which private health care are allowed to take OHIP patients, to alleviate the backlog of much needed medical help. Oh, doesn’t that sound good?

NOT.

There is nothing good about private business mucking about in health care. It turns a right into a luxury. That is, it is no longer a right to be healthy, but a privilege. Just as we see that the right to have shelter is now a privilege. A privilege for the RICH ONLY.

They stealthily do this, first by gradually eroding the rights of the sick, the elderly, the poor. Those least able to fight back and stop this. Once it gets past them, then it is too late to turn back and then everyone’s rights are gone.

We’ve had free health care so long, we forget the insidious nature of capitalism. Big business has nothing to do with charity. Nothing to do with rights. It only has to do with money. Money for shareholders. It is only and always about the bottom line. People are just wallets and bank accounts and credit. They don’t care whether you live or die. They don’t care about your problems or conditions.

Health clinics are for profit private businesses. Their goal is to make money. Not take care of people. Thus, they upsell. They happily take what OHIP gives them, but that is not enough. They are a business, not a charity. They want to make huge profits. Now there will be additional never heard of costs to the patient, that will result in out of pocket expenses in the thousands.

It is already happening. I have heard lots of complaints from people who are now expected to pay thousands of dollars for procedures that are FREE under OHIP. At a private clinic, people feel pressured to have more than is necessary done, at a huge cost. If they don’t want the upsell, then they wait just as long for a surgery at the clinic as they would for a hospital stay. If they pay, they get immediate surgery. The result is they either fork over lots of money, or worse, they delay or forgo having necessary surgery done.

Nurses and professionals of course want to work in these places because they are underpaid and working in deteriorating hospitals. Private clinics are state of the art, top of the line in cleanliness and professionalism – something our hospitals and staff used to be, because the money went there.

Eventually, OHIP will disappear and we will have private insurance – if you can afford it.

Gradually, Ford, our greedy business minded Premier, who has also decided to strip us of our beautiful Greenbelt for housing – for the RICH under the guise it is to alleviate homelessness (I ask you, who will be able to buy these homes, built on prime land, who, to begin with can’t even afford rent. Do you really believe those houses will be for low income???! Developers don ‘t build for poor people. Especially on choice land!)

We are on a slippery slope to the American health system. That is NO health system. Except if you are rich.

I predict that in two years, there will be little, if anything left of OHIP. And when other provinces see the money they too can make, all of Canada will follow suit.

Personally, I would rather pay more for my OHIP through my taxes each year, as do countries like Norway and Denmark, than to have to navigate and negotiate and beg for insurance and end up penniless and sick, or dead.

I ask you, what is government for? It is to PROTECT PEOPLE. It is suppose to be socialist. Get that through your heads. It suppose to be FOR the people, not for business, not for profit. The money is there. OUR MONEY. The government is NOT cash strapped. It is just full of greedy politicians not the least bit caring about us. They are not suppose to take advantage of situations for their own benefit. The government is not a corporation, not a private business. Our tax dollars are suppose to be used for US. For our health care, schooling, roads, police…don’t you understand that?

Beware. It does not end here. These type of politicians will come for our school system next.

We have a chance to vote this guy out in October. Let’s do it. Before we become the mess that the United States is.

I suggest you read Bernie Sanders book, It’s Okay to be Angry about Capitalism, and see how little the Americans have compared to us, and where we are heading.

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I Want to Throw Up

After reading yet one more account of crimes committed by yet another Republican on Trumps team, I have come to the conclusion that they support Trump not because they care so much for him, as it is to hide their own sins. In fact, Trump has given them riotous license to do as they please, above and beyond all laws, morals and plain old common human decency.

I am stunned by the level of corruption and disregard for the law in the United States political realm today. It is all lies, lies, lies and even when they are exposed, absolutely nothing happens. Nothing!!

Everything from DUI’s to money laundering to tax fraud to racism to crimes I have never even imagined in my entire life are committed by this brood of vipers. Stuff that you or I as common people would never even dream of doing, and if we did, we would spend lifetimes in jail – there would be no pardons for us!

I can’t stomach any more of this. I have reached the breaking point.

Is this what it means to be rich and powerful? To be vulgar rapists? To leave no stone unturned in the pursuit of money? Anything goes? It is terrifying. It is disgusting, vile and it makes me want to throw up.

Please make this nightmare stop and restore our sense of balance. The world is topsy turvy. Babylon is falling. All the demons are out of the box. Is there not even a shred of humanity left? Not in politics. Not in our leaders. How can people support this evil? WHY? I don’t understand any of it.

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50+

If I had my way, then all women who find themselves in the all too familiar predicament lately of being 50+, divorced or single, unemployed or underemployed, perhaps with some developing health issues, and not much money, would be helped.

Our old way of doing things is coming to an end. Our old ways of getting work and supporting ourselves is changing.

Help would come in the form of transitioning into this new way of being.

Of course, it concerns money. Everything is about money now. And NO it is not about lending money. It is about giving with no expectation of financial payback. Especially with interest. Gee whiz.

What I would like to see is free education for these women, so they can transition into a new way of supporting themselves. They could take higher education and get a new career, develop craftsman skills and apprentice. Be taken in and mentored in a field they would enjoy. There would be money to start a new business, and funding to help supply housing and food while making a transition.

So many women have so much to offer but are being ignored by the traditional way of finding work. These women have to reinvent themselves at a time when it can be most difficult to do so, usually for lack of funds and health issues. Many are caring for aging parents and children returning home.

There is a wealth of experience and knowledge many women have to offer to a world desperately in need of such counselling. We need to find ways to open doors for this knowledge to be tapped and used.

I realize that this is not for everyone, and there should be no pressure for someone to change. However, for those who do want to, then we should make it easy for them to do so, so they can get back out into the world and make a positive contribution. We are wasting a valuable resource when our world is in desperate trouble. A world that needs intelligent and compassionate solutions to enormous problems.

We can no longer rely on or trust our politicians or governments to do the right thing. They have their own selfish agendas and the money seldom wanders far from their own pockets and interests. What needs to be done in the world will have to be done by individuals helping one another. People who will take on the issues that our elected officials and governments are supposed to do and find ways to do it ourselves.

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Poverty In Our Own Room

In this world of an ever increasing divide between the rich and the poor, the haves and the have nots, we tend not to notice that poverty can be right in our own rooms.

The people we work with.

Our friends.

Ourselves.

How many wealthy bosses and business owners, world leaders and politicians don’t even notice the sometimes wide spread poverty of their own employees or constituents or worse, don’t even care. Many have been rich a long time and have no understanding on any level of what it means to struggle financially. To not be able to pay bills, make ends meet, save money. To not have any future.

There is a failure to see that poverty is not just the masses of people living in horrific conditions elsewhere in the world. It is right under our noses.

Poverty is on the increase in our country, not just for the unemployed and seniors, but prevalent in the working masses. Single parents forced to sleep at work because they are homeless. People walking for miles to work because they can’t afford transportation. People without heat or electricity or water – right here in our own country. What about people who are wiped out by hurricanes, fires or ill health who have no “emergency fund” or insurance. The “emergency fund” and buying insurance by the way, are just clever ploys to make us think financial difficulties are our fault (good luck trying to collect from insurance when you need it too). The real problem is low wages and the resulting debt load (how the F can you put money away for a ‘crisis’ or afford insurance, when you can’t put food on the table). How can your wages compete with runaway inflation (look at the cost of food, housing and transportation-out of control and caused by greed).

Totally disgusting that many states and provinces have blocked the increase of minimum wages. Corporations, governments and banks have enslaved the majority of the population with debt. Debt is no longer a symptom of overspending on luxuries, that was back in more prosperous days – now it is a necessity in order to survive.

For want of sometimes a very small sum of money, a person cannot go forward in life, or worse, loses what little they have. Even if the rich do help, they want pay back, with interest.

Gone are the days – long gone are the days, when if you just work hard enough, get more education or kiss the bosses ass, you’ll be a success. Now you have to kiss the bosses ass just to survive.

Many of us will have to keep on working long past the point where we are physically and mentally able. Probably many are at that point now.

My Mom always said, charity begins at home. And we have a big problem, right here at home.

The answer to poverty in our own room is just that. Charity begins at home. We can no longer turn to our governments or politicians for help as they are greedy and self serving (politicians are just wannabe rock stars and governments serve big corporations). No, it is happening in the hearts and minds of ordinary people.

People rally together to help those in need. When we are made aware, we take action. Look at the website Sunny Skyz and you will see all kinds of people doing all kinds of acts of kindness that make huge differences in peoples lives.

A pair of shoes. A blanket. Another chance at life.

We can no longer look up to the big wigs, the bosses, the politicians, the corporations, the uber rich. We have to do it ourselves – and we are. In even small ways, every day, we can change the world into a much better place.

Our governments and world leaders fail us. They are not interested in our welfare or the worlds. Most of our leaders are self serving or dictators. The more we realize this, the more we can fix things ourselves. Right here in our own rooms.

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Charities that Bite

I am very disappointed with one of my favourite charities.

At this time of year I am bombarded with mail from many worthwhile charities.  I have donated to several in the past, but as my income shrinks I have to be more selective of who receives my funds.

I have always been miffed by the huge amount of address labels, blank cards, note paper, cheap pens and the like that are sent to me to solicit my donation.  I am offered junk which has nothing to do with the cause hoping to entice and reward me for my money.  I don’t want this stuff.  Your reason for being is enough.  Do you do good in the world?  The money actually goes to where it is needed?  That is good enough.

I loathe the long letters that complete these packages, not only for the waste of paper, but they start to sound like needy, whiny relatives who don’t work but expect me to support them.

I support a local organization that sends me email newsletters occasionally during the year showing me where my money is going.  X number of dollars spent on this.  No pie charts, no gloss.  No whining about costs, inflation, no complaints or pleading.  This is what we did with your money.  Here’s what we need for what in the future. Yay.

The charity that irked me however is a favourite of mine, that set up an office in my country because I presume we are donating lots of money to them.  They sent me a letter in which they apologize for delays in their mailings, offer me the token junk, and then proceed to blame our government for their problems.  They are very upset because our government investigated them, found they are not obeying our tax laws and now demand they comply.  Imagine that.

Because they did not bother to research our laws in the first place, or worse, chose to ignore them, they are now mad it is costing them money and time to follow our rules.  And they want me to pay for it!

We are a generous nation, this is well known.  But I am incensed with organizations who love our money and complain bitterly about our laws.  Laws that protect our citizens, our way of life, values and livelihood.    They make little effort to learn of us and then condemn us for enforcing our laws.  If you are going to disrespect what we have worked so hard for, I take offense at that.  Not to mention it cost us taxpayers lots of money to investigate you and make sure your business complies with our regulations, and continues to do so.

I did write this organization a brief letter, but who knows who will read it.  I hate to complain about charities, I have never done so in my life.  They serve valuable and necessary functions and I support that.  Just don’t bite the hand that feeds you.  Only my cat is allowed to do that.