We need your help in getting the word out that America needs an EU style social safety net, will you please help?
As an American expat living in the European Union I am continually astonished to find that the folks back home seem to be unaware of the extensive social safety net that is available to workers, even low wage workers in the European Union from cradle to grave as a human right. So as a New Year's resolution I have written this diary which asks you to please help us spread the word that there is a better way.
Why don't you know the facts of the EU social safety net? Why won't the plutocrat owned American media cover this?
In the European Union everyone to include low wage workers who aren't even unionized are able to receive 4 weeks paid vacation a year. They are able to receive as a human right complete medical and dental to include a prescription plan with little or no co-pays or deductibles. They are never exposed to exclusion of medical services based on pre-existing conditions, which seems to be a uniquely American phenomenon. Everyone to include low wage workers gets paid sick leave. Everyone gets job protected paid maternity leave by right of law. Now why don't these things exist in America? Is it by accident or by design and if it is by design, who designed it? Who profits from it? To whose benefit and whose detriment. Moreover why isn't this on every news channel. Why is it you have to read about this on a Kos diary. Why isn't this news headlines all across the country everyday? Who owns those media outlets? Who influences editorial policy. Is the American media complicit in aiding and abetting Wall Street in screwing the American worker and screwing the American taxpayer. Why aren't we mad as hell about this everyday! When is it enough??
Here are some simple facts, simply put did you know that students in Continental Europe basically don't have student loan debt? Why don't you know that?
Isn't it enough that they're drowning your kids in student loan debt. You want to know something even crazier which I'm sure you don't know, did you know the lifetime limit of the Federal Stafford Student Loan hasn't been increased in over 20 years! Now why the hell is that? Who are they trying to keep out of higher education, could it be that if too many working class stiffs get too educated, that they will try to dismantle this system which is rotten to the core from the inside, because that's it isn't it. They want to limit educational opportunity to just their people on the one hand, on the other hand they want to drown you and your kids in student loan debt. Did you know this doesn't happen in any country in Continental Europe, I'm sure you don't know that. I want to know why you don't know that? Who has kept that information from you? And why? Did you know and this is serious, that education in Continental Europe is almost free. Let me just say that again, so that nobody thinks this is a typo, education in Continental Europe is almost free of charge that is to say, that American students probably spend as much or more on books, just books for the school year, than students in Continental Europe spend in an entire year's tuition. You may ask how is that possible? Let me ask you how is it possible that you didn't know that? Could it be so they can continue to drown you and your kids in student loan debt, because this has become a source of neo-indentured servitude, therein creating a really compliant workforce, because now you really need that job. You have got to pay off a lot of student debt, imagine that. Well you don't have to imagine that, you live it everyday, and you swallow it and you take it and you take it until you can't take it anymore, and then it's enough! Oh by the way those same students in Europe get virtually free health insurance and if they have a family they are covered as well. Again tiny or no co-pays or deductibles, no pre-existing conditions to exclude one from health care coverage.
Did you know that subsidies are normal throughout the European Union in support of family values? Why doesn't the American media report on this measurably?
Did you know throughout Europe subsizied childcare and subsidized eldercare is the norm. They have something else called child allowance which is also the norm. That is to say everybody who has a child gets help from the government to raise that child. But the rich plutocrat owned for profit American news media's propaganda preaching self-reliance is so pervasive I have to explain to you that everybody gets this in Europe even billionaires, it is not a poverty program it is a human right. I have also got to explain something to you, this is in addition to child tax credits. When you explain child allowance to Americans they always get massively confused and say we have child tax credits here too. Child allowance has nothing to do with child tax credits. It is something in support of real family values that you don't know anything about because the plutocrat owned American media won't report on it, but this Kos diary has. We are asking and pleading with you to help us get the word out which is while we can all be proud Americans, we don't have to be proud of the broken American social safety net do we. There we should, can and must do better!
Did you know that single people can get cash assistance so they can pay their rent in the European Union? Why don't you know that? Is this why America has 2.3 million people in jail?
In the European Union single people can get cash assistance in paying rent, did you know that? Even if they are not disabled. The reason I mention that is because single adults who are not disabled in America receive no cash from the government to pay rent, and therefore can wind up on the streets homeless. What that means is that there are millions of desperate people in America that wouldn't be desperate if America had a European social safety net. Why is that important? Because desperate people may take desperate measures and commit crimes. Now this is not to excuse criminal activity this merely recognizes that it is cheaper to fund a social safety net, than an expensive prison system. But then again the prison system there are too many people in America who make money off the prison system and have good paying jobs as a result of the prison system. They would lose that cushion if there was a strong social safety net. So it is there are 2.3 million people in America in prison and the American taxpayers pay for them to be in prison in a clear case where it is cheaper to send someone to go to Harvard University than for them to be in prison for a year. this is to say nothing of the fact that the taxpayers wind up subsidizing the families of these people who we put in prison. Did you know America has more people in prison per capita than anywhere in the European Union, why is that? Could it be that in the EU they have a social safety net. Did you know there are more people in jail in America than there are people on active duty in the US military? What a staggering loss of human potential this represents. It is an international badge of shame!
We need your help to get the word out, please support this New Year's resolution, thanks!
So this brief rant diary attempts to provide some basic information which is unavailable in the for-profit American plutocrat owned media which is rarely reported on except in the most forgettable sound bytes. Because the for profit American plutocrat owned media doesn't want to bite the hand that feeds it. Therefore this diary asks you the reader if you find value in what you have read, to please help us spread the word by sending this diary and ones like it to family and friends, or connecting up with Facebook or other social media. This diary also encourages you to write a diary which is informative on the same lines as this one, or to give your opinion about how you feel about this issue? Let's support a New Year's resolution that says we are going to get the word out, that change needs to come to America now. It is not acceptable to have your pension stolen. It is not acceptable to be living in underwater mortgages where they concurrently can drown you and your kids in student loan debt. Threaten you with medical bankruptcy as part of a rigged system, where they play with marked cards, where the only way to win is not to play their crooked game, because if you sit down at the table you will lose. The game is designed to make you lose. Casinos are built with the money of losers. Be a winner, don't play their crooked game! Don't allow yourself to be brainwashed by their media. Don't elect millionaires to Congress or other high political offices. Support real change!
"Harvard Medical Study Links Lack of Insurance to 45,000 U.S. Deaths a Year:"
http://prescriptions.blogs.nytimes.com/...