Filed under: Paradox | Tags: Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh, health care reform, heart transplant, Laith Dougherty
Here’s a story that will delight both admirers of American generosity and critics of unleashed US capitalism. It’s also another example of the (many) paradoxes of the American society.
Laith Dougherty is a two month old baby born in Portland, Oregon, with a severe cardiac dysfunction. Estimated at $ 1.5 million, the cost of the surgery critical to his survival was far more than the family’s insurance coverage could provide, and no qualified hospital from Oregon to California would take care of the baby unless the cost was paid upfront.
On March 2, with a little help of outraged bloggers, Laith was finally admitted to the Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, who volunteered to save his life despite the lack of coverage. Not only by generosity, but also because the hospital has a 90% success rate for this type of surgery and is one of the few in the country capable of implementing a heart pump adapted to the small size of the patient while awaiting a transplant.
The paradox is that Laith could benefit from full coverage by Medicaid … if only his parents were poor enough. Strange system where – if not a millionaire – it’s better to be born without shelter to ensure good health.
Barack Obama hosted today at the White House a summit on health care reform. Perhaps the end of a paradox.
I wish a long life to Laith, who really touched … my heart !
Filed under: Paradox, Politics | Tags: Barack Obama, Carla Bruni, French Socialist Party, Nicolas Sarkozy, Ségolène Royal
Since the U.S. presidential election, the world seems to claim its share of the success of Barack Obama. The event is particularly celebrated by the French Socialist Party leaders, who seem to have experienced the election of Obama as the return of the prodigal son. They feel like after all these years of wandering in wars and “brutal capitalism”, the American people found their way back to more noble and generous ideals : theirs (those of the French socialists).
From there to suggest that Obama’s victory is just their own, there is only one step that was easily crossed by Ségolène Royal (the French socialist candidate who lost the presidential election in 2007) on January 20 in her statement to the French newspaper Le Monde: “I have inspired Obama and his team copied our campaign.” So much for the reputation of French arrogance. The French far left and anti-globalization movement may well also have the use of a bit of “Obama Magic” and chanted an utterly shameless “Yes We Can“ while demonstrating against the “colonialist practices of the French government” (but asking for “immediate government subsidy”) in the Caribbean! (Arghh!)
But while the French Socialist leaders seem to believe that there is now a Ségolène Royal in the White House, Americans actually seem to worry that their new president looks more and more like … Nicolas Sarkozy!
They’re probably right. Barack Obama is not Che Guevara! And before they ask for Sarkozy’s impeachment and ask Barack Obama to lead the country instead, the French Socialists should consider some facts first. Obama does not argue for a general increase in wages and a spending stimulus as the Socialist Party does in France, but for massive investment in infrastructure, research and education, just as the French President. Like him, Obama proposes to reduce taxes on the middle class, not increase them. Like him, he wants more control over the financial markets, not to demolish Wall Street piece by piece. Like Sarkozy in France, Obama intends to increase healthcare coverage in the U.S. by reducing healthcare costs, not increasing them.
Other similarities are also striking. The Obama Administration claims bi-partisanship and includes figures of both camps. What the French Socialists had considered a “cheap political maneuver” when Sarkozy took a similar initiative in France! The first decision was for Obama to close of the detention camp at Guantanamo Bay. In France, the closure of the Sangatte refugee camp by Sarkozy was described as a reckless and dangerous act.
With respect to media coverage as well, all things considered, the “hyper-President” Sarkozy can be easily compared to the “Obama icon”. The American president made the headlines of Men’s Health (while smoking a pack of cigarettes per day before the campaign!) and Vanity Fair … where he succeeded to the glamorous Carla Bruni-Sarkozy.
No really, Newsweek’s cover this week may well claim that “We are all Socialists Now!” with an article explaining how the U.S. economy becomes more and more French, it remains very, very unlikely to see a socialist like Ségolène Royal enter the White House. Although he’s been leading the conservative party, the “socialist” that Americans view as living in the Elysee Palace right now is Nicolas Sarkozy ! So much for Ségolène’s copyright on Obama’s campaign.
Filed under: Fun stuff, Paradox, Politics | Tags: capitalism, French economy, porn industry, US economic stimulus package
I guess that a title like this will boost my blog’s statistics. But it’s not the (only) point of my post today. Yes, I was amazed – and amused – to learn that the American “adult entertainment industry” (let’s be PC) was actually lining up to get its share of the economic stimulus package offered by the government to help businesses cope with the crisis. But more importantly, I’m tired – really tired – to hear and read over and over from friends and in the American media that the American economy is going down “the French road”, with the underlying meaning that France is a socialist-like country that became a model in subsidizing its businesses.
France might not be a model of pure capitalism, but is certainly NOT the socialized economy most Americans imagine. As a recent example, French banks did not call for a bailout and did not get a dime from the French government to face the crisis (France handled the financial crisis by offering a (remunerated) state guarantee to lenders rather than giving out tax money without control). Neither did the car makers so far (none of them are state-owned by the way). As for the porn industry, well, I must admit that it might get “subsidized” by the French government investing in quality communication infrastructure that helps bring the high-speed Internet, cable TV and telephone for less than 30 dollars a month to a majority of the French population. But looking at my Internet bill here, I’m sure most Americans would appreciate subsidizing the porn industry that way too.
Bottom line, whether in France or in the US, there’s the same indecency in defending free markets, small government and low profit taxes when the economy is booming, and calling the government to rescue when markets are turning bad. Cutting jobs for the sake of global competitiveness in good times, while pretending that a government bailout would preserve jobs in bad times. Lobbying for tax cuts in the oil industry in exchange of R&D investment in alternative energies when gas prices are low, and give maximum profit to shareholders when gas prices are high … while still not providing taxpayers with any evidence of progress in alternative energy supply.
Privatizing profits and leaving losses to taxpayers is not capitalism nor socialism. It’s greed. And France is absolutely not different from America in that regard. The difference is that there has been more losses to socialize than profits to privatize in my country over the past decade. Unfortunately, it looks like America’s going to catch up soon … while remaining a capitalist economy for those who make profits. Just like France.
Filed under: Culture Shock, Paradox | Tags: firearms, terrorism, USA, Wal-Mart
Wal-Mart and the bi-partisan coalition of Mayors Against Illegal Guns announced in April that Wal-Mart, the largest seller of firearms in the nation, has adopted the new Responsible Firearms Retailer Partnership, a code that should help ensure that guns do not fall into the wrong hands. The news irritated Kevin Miller this afternoon. The chronicler of my favorite pro-republican radio station – KDKA Newsradio Pittsburgh – was shocked by the intention of Wal-Mart to videotape and file all firearm buyers in its stores. According to Miller, this would be a severe restriction to the Second Amendment and to the individual rights that America stands for.
According to the National Rifle Association for Legislative Action, 30.364 private American citizens were killed by guns in 2005.
The Patriot Act and all the security bills passed by the Bush Administration allow, among other things, the introduction of biometric records on everyone entering the American soil, phone-taping of any private conversation by secret services and, more recently, drug use and practices generally regarded as acts of torture for interrogation of persons suspected of terrorism. But for the sake of National Security, these restrictions to individual rights and freedom have been quite welcomed.
According to the Department of State, terrorism killed 19 private American citizens in 2007 (2 in Afghanistan and 17 Iraq, none on US soil).
To make America safer, all presidential candidates have a plan to fight terrorism. None will question the Second Amendment of the Constitution adopted in 1787 because “a well regulated militia” was then “necessary to the security of a free State” (and especially a State surrounded by a well organized British army!)
Times change! Priorities don’t?
