Politicians Need to Feel the Consequences

I sometimes wonder why things seem to be getting worse for ordinary people while the politicians who are elected to represent us do nothing about it.

Whether it’s education, health care, the military, or retirement — it seems that the average American gets a raw deal. Maybe it’s because they are not affected by the systems they force on the rest of us.

Education

Have you ever noticed how horribly American public schools do compared to those in other parts of the world, or compared to American public schools from past times?

America used to be a beacon for education for the common person. This was partly due to groups such as the Puritans and the Quakers, who set up schools for both boys and girls. This made early America a place that was head-and-shoulders above other nations in terms of literacy. In New England in the late 18th century, it was 90%, about twice what it was in England at the time.

This included both males and females in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic regions. The Puritans believed everyone should be able to read the Bible for themselves and the Quakers believed in the equality of all people — so they were among the first to set up schools for black children, including in parts of the South.

Now?

The cost to “educate” a student are higher than ever, but literacy rates have plummeted for public school students, and particularly for many black and brown students.

Our leaders in Washington, however, don’t feel our pain, because most of them send their children to private schools. This includes those at the top, whether Michelle and Barack Obama (who sent their daughters to Sidwell Friends School) or Barron Trump (who is at the Oxbridge Academy).

While these are the children of Presidents, other children of legislators also are much more likely to go to private schools than the general populace.

What is the motivation, therefore, to fix the public schools?

While they may give lip service to improving public school education, since it doesn’t affect them personally, how motivated are they really to do more than offer lip service in order to get votes?

Health Care

Whether it’s Obamacare (The Affordable Care Act), Medicare, the VA, or Medicaid — American medical care for those who don’t have substantial income is often substandard.

It didn’t used to be this way.

You can read about the excellent health care Americans used to get. Yes, they often had to pay for it out of pocket, but patients could still get doctor’s visits as late as the 1960s. I remember episodes of I Love Lucy from that time frame in which doctors make house calls.

When I was a child in the 1970s, there were no house calls but there were still small doctor’s practices in which patients got plenty of personalized attention. Insurance coverage was much more limited. The paperwork that doctors had to deal with was far less, as was administrative oversight. This actually resulted in higher patient satisfaction.

Now, according to PBS, most Americans are not happy with health care.

Yet if you are a member of Congress or work for the federal government, you are exempt from many of the rules that are foisted on the rest of us. For example, when a federal worker changes jobs to a different government sector, they keep their coverage without any disruption of benefits. They can keep their plans when they retire. And they have many more health plan options available.

Many of the health care laws passed by Congress have exemptions for … members of Congress!

We can look at the substandard care we offer our veterans through the VA, to indigenous people, and to the poor and lower middle class, and wonder why we don’t have better solutions. Maybe if we asked Congress to subscribe to the same insurance plans the rest of us are stuck with, healthcare options for the general public would be better?

The Military

The Vietnam War was dubbed “a rich man’s war but a poor man’s fight” because so many sons of the upper classes were able to avoid being sent to the battlefield. However, the disparities have not always been so great.

During the American Civil War, for example, a larger percentage of the sons of the wealthy enlisted than were in the general population. Meanwhile, the Northern armies were more dominated by the poor

During the two world wars, many of the sons of the well-off enlisted and some of them died. President Teddy Roosevelt’s youngest son, Quentin, died in combat in WWI; John F. Kennedy’s older brother Joseph fought and died in WWII. Both he and JFK enlisted, despite their father’s wealth.

Indeed, during the two world wars, many of the sons of the economically privileged volunteered.

In recent years, however, it is the children of the poor who typically die in armed conflicts.

Would our willingness to fight in armed conflicts around the world decline if the children of the better off were not exempted? Would soldiers and their family be better treated?

Retirement

Whether you are a member of Congress or a clerk at the IRS, you “are automatically enrolled in one of the best retirement systems in the world.”

Other government employees, such as postal workers and teachers also have access to better retirement plans than the rest of us.

Again — the question to ask yourself — is this fair? And, what would happen if, say, IRS agents and member of Congress had to stick to the same retirement schemes the rest of us are stuck with?

I suspect if those who craft our laws had to follow the same rules they foist on the rest of us, the general populace would be far more satisfied and the country would look very different.

I am fighting stage IV cancer. If you would like to help with medical bills, I would really appreciate it. Or if you enjoy my writing and would like to buy me a cup of coffee, that’s great too. Maybe someday I can return the favor.

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This post was previously published on MEDIUM.COM.

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The Lack of Gentle Platonic Touch in Men’s Lives is a Killer

What We Talk About When We Talk About Men

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