(#6235) The unease of the cost of living

      Just thinking about the title of this blog gives me a bit of a shudder. The cost we must pay to stay alive in some kind of natural normal way. How our societies have allowed themselves to be structured in ways that are more punishing than joyful. The ideal of the pursuit of happiness is less a starting point and more a destination to struggle to achieve. For me it always boils back down to capitalism. People making money off of other people wherever and however they can. Where good intentions are lost to a cost. Where helping hands are also into our pockets. The idea of decency and friendliness are also values to be bartered.
     I am no enemy of capitalism but I am an enemy of those who are quick to profit off the hardships of others. In the most egregious example we need only look to health care. Where the vast majority of the civilized world has universal health care for their inhabitants but we here in the United States of America must go through a system middlemen who don't actually do anything to provide health care. They demand profits so much so that many of us cannot reasonably afford health care like in other societies who don't capitalize off the misery and suffering of their people. But here in the US of A we don't care as long as profits come in despite the absurdity.
     There are other examples in health care here in America like separating out vision, hearing, dental from normal coverage. Like our eyes, ears and teeth are not really whole health interconnected medical issues. I settled on using health care as my primary example of how insidious capitalism can be in our society. But there are others paradigms. Like education, food and water, and housing. I don't wholly denigrate capitalism because I know that creative merit and work ethic are good byproducts of the capitalistic dogma but limits have to be in place so that capitalism doesn't threaten our democracy nor our human dignity.