Hoisted from Comments: What Equality of Opportunity?

[elfs]

caraig made the following point:

But what kind of society do we live in when it's apparently considered okay to check with someone if they're really sure they want to shell out a grand for medicine? What kind of society do we live in where we have to shell out a grand for medicine, period?

There's a common meme in right-wing circles that says "We only want equality of opportunity. What the left wants is equality of outcome, regardless of ability."

In cases like ours, though, there is no equality of opportunity. With treatment, Omaha is more mentally and physically capable than many of her peers; she carries a media company, a district-wide political party, and a family on her back day in and day out. But there is no equality of opportunity here.

Indeed, we're in the position David Frum once espoused: financially so precarious that we must not even consider, as Frum put it, "jumping across the big top," acting in that celebratory, individualist, self-assertive mode so fashionable with Fox News-watching retirees with their American-diet induced diabetes and their Medicare-purchased wheelchairs.

But starting a business requires capital-- capital we don't have and can't accrue, because so much more goes into our family than that of the average American just for staying alive. The average, healthy American family spends about 9% of their monthly budget on things they put into their mouths; my family pays 34%. So there's no "equality of opportunity" here. I don't think we as a country ought to pretend otherwise.

Comments

[alicephilippa.livejournal.com]

Whilst it has it's flaws I'm grateful to our National Health Service. Thanks to a variety of circumstances I don't have to pay out for medication. If I did each drug would cost me ~$11/month irrespective of the actual cost to the NHS. If I had to pay for medication at cost, there's no two ways about it I'd be dead as I couldn't actually afford some of my meds.

Similarly, for seeing my doc, I don't have to worry about whether I can afford to see her, or any specialists I get referred to. A universal health service is part of the means of providing equality of opportunity.

A wealthy developed society has, in my view, no excuse for not providing everyone, rich and poor alike, a good standard of healthcare that is free at the point of delivery.

[caraig.livejournal.com]

I think I understand. That actually makes it a lot clearer than I thought before. The idea of 'equality of opportunity' being a myth like so many other things (the 'Golden Age of the 50's' being the one that really sets my teeth on edge) does not, after reading this, surprise me.

Thinking about it more, there really is not 'equality of opportunity' even in the national consciousness. We all still applaud the stories of 'local boy makes good' and the so-called 'self-made man,' but they're hailed for being the exceptions to the rule. And it's becoming more and more clear that it is those same market forces being held up as being so equitable that are enforcing that rule. People are becoming millionaires and 'wealthy' *despite* the way things are financially and economically in the US, not because.

This makes me a bit further on than just a sad panda. :/

[caraig.livejournal.com]

Also, thank you for the explanation, and for going into that! =)