How Much Is Your Life Worth? by Mike Gold – Brainiac On Banjo #143
November 9, 2009 Mike Gold 1 Comment
I am about to reveal to you the exact price of a human life.
The fate of tens of thousands of American citizens each year is now in the hands of the U.S. senate. In the broader sense, counting every individual who is at very serious risk, is more like hundreds of thousands of Americans.
These senators are going to have to put aside partisan politics and the will of those mega-corporations who pay for their campaigns and consider the lives of the uninsured, the underinsured, those with “previous conditions” and those who will lose their coverage. Today, their lives and the lives of those who count on them are in the hands of 100 senators.
Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman, who is, I regret to say, my senator, has declared he will do all he can to prevent a vote on health care from happening in the senate. That goes beyond merely voting against it and, therefore, condemning hundreds of thousands to death. That’s not letting anybody else vote on it either way. Why would a man whose public attitude is so pious he actually shits halos?
Well, I could suggest that because it’s an important Democratic Party bill, my Little Hitler is still pissed that the party in his home state tossed him off the ticket. Joe Lieberman is most certainly that petty. Lucky for Joe, the state Republicans – as well as the considerable number of old Jews Joe managed to frighten out of their wits – held their nose and voted for the bastard, keeping him in Washington. But, honestly, I don’t think that’s what happening in this case.
I think the two and one-half million dollars in campaign contributions Joe Lieberman receives from the insurance and medical vultures plays a somewhat greater role. This “man” is bought and paid for, and he knows it is time for him to pull their train.
Joe Lieberman is nothing but an old whore with an infectious disease. He’s unlikely to win reelection to a fourth term, but he thinks he can still turn a few tricks with those kinky enough to meet his rather low price. But Joe’s not the one paying: the money comes from those who can afford health care, but the actual price is paid by those who cannot.
Let’s do the math. Forget about the underinsured and those about to lose their insurance. Let’s just look at the 40,000 people who die each year due to not being able to get any insurance. Divide his $2,500,000 by 40,000.
That means the cost of a single human life, to Joe Lieberman, is $62.50. He’s not worried about losing voters here; he’s killing the people who wouldn’t vote for him off while making his masters very, very happy.
And Joe Lieberman is doing it on the cheap. Rabbi Joe, as the orthodox Jew is known in the senate.
Well, you’re not doing much for beating the stereotype, are you, Joe?
Mike Gold performs the weekly two-hour Weird Sounds Inside The Gold Mind ass-kicking bizarro music and blather show starts up Sundays at 7:00 PM Eastern on www.getthepointradio.com , replayed the following Thursdays at 10:00 PM Eastern. Likewise, his Weird Scenes Inside The Gold Mind rants pop up every on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday exclusively at www.getthepointradio.com . The regularWeird Scenes Inside The Gold Mind rants continue every Monday and Friday on The Point podcasts, available right here at www.michaeldavisworld.com , as well as at www.comicmix.com,www.getthepointradio.com, www.zzcomics.com, and www.ravenwolfstudios.com. You can subscribe to The Point podcasts at iTunes by searching under “The Point Radio.”
Gold is also a regular contributor to www comicmix.com, and edits their online comic book content. Check out the all-new GrimJack: The Manx Cat #6 and Jon Sable Freelance: Ashes of Eden #4, and Andrew Pepoy’s The Adventures of Simon and Ajax, now being solicited in the IDW Publishing section of this month’s Diamond catalog.
Martha Thomases
November 9, 2009 - 5:51 am
This column maligns old whores.
Jeremiah Avery
November 9, 2009 - 7:47 am
I had read how Joe Lieberman’s wife works for a lobbying company that deals with the healthcare industry. Can you say “conflict of interest”?
It’s not just him, but most of these politicians do not care about the majority of the people because we can’t afford to line their coffers with bribes, excuse me “campaign contributions”. Look at the bailout, a lot of people told their congressmen and women to not vote for it, but yet when the lobbyist came to D.C. the voices of the people fell on deaf ears.
Vinnie Bartilucci
November 9, 2009 - 9:36 am
He’s not merely being cheap, he’s “getting it wholesale”. An important distinction.
We will end up with a bill that achieves nothing and is packed with gifts and tradeoffs. It already includes a section that will give grants to states that create reforms in malpractice suite…as long as they don’t “limit attorneys’ fees or impose caps on damages.” In other words, as long as the reforms don’t actually achieve anything.
That’s this entire bill in microcosm. It’s going to be thousands of pages long, not one single person will have read it all, and it will be signed because there is a hysteria about “getting something done”. As opposed to getting the RIGHT thing done. We like putting a cap on things, ticking off the box on the clipboard and moving on to the Next Big Thing. Sometimes, just getting people to stop talking about the Big Thing is enough. If we don’t hear about something often enough, we assume it’s gone away.
It seems to me the far more strategic (and effective) plan is to break the whole thing into manageable chunks. Instead of passing one massive incomprehensible piece of crap, put forth a series of one-step-at-a-time laws that address one issue each. Less places to hide pork, easier to understand, harder to confuse people with. One law that deals solely with malpractice, one that deals solely with coverage for the high-risk/uninsurable, etc. Journey of a thousand miles and all that.
I know, it means ten more times for the other side to fight it, but if the small law is clear and easy to understand, it’ll be harder to fight, and with each loss they’ll seem more and more fringey.
It’s amazing how alien these ideas sound when presented, isn’t it?
Elayne Riggs
November 9, 2009 - 10:34 am
Let’s not forget that Hadassah Lieberman is a senior consultant at Hill & Knowlton’s “health care and pharmaceuticals practice.” At the very least, Lieberman ought to recuse himself from the discussions due to multiple conflicts of interest.
Reg
November 9, 2009 - 10:52 am
@ Jeremiah and Elayne… that’s exactly what I was trying to drolly insinuate in the earlier column. Can someone say lube, oleo, and any number of adjectives beginning with the letter ‘g’ that describe opportunities that can abound in such circumstances?
Mike Gold
November 9, 2009 - 1:20 pm
It’s a shame, really, about Hadassah. I did some work with her over the Head Start and school readiness programs and found her to be brilliant and selfless — she never had an entourage, she never brought along the media. In fact, she didn’t do media events. So I’ve been saddened by her connection to Hill & Knowlton. Not surprised; it’s like being surprised when your dog stops at a fire hydrant.
Reg, I didn’t know the word “oleo” was still in use. I remember as a kid driving up from Illinois to Wisconsin. Oleo was illegal there at the time, so we drove past a bunch of “Last Chance For Oleo” signs. As a kid, I didn’t know what that was. When my father explained it to me, I couldn’t understand why it was banned in Wisconsin.
Those “cheese Cokes” should have tipped me off. Or over, I guess.
Reg
November 9, 2009 - 2:02 pm
Mike.. what can I tell you, bro? I got history. 😛
Steven Atkins
November 12, 2009 - 12:52 am
The non-priveledged human being is next to worthless in the eyes of those who have power and money.
Ask any old couple that worked hard all their lives, played by the rules, and owned their own home…only to have it yanked away from them so that it could be cleared away for another mall in some infuriating form of Eminent Domain.
It’s an old song that gets entirely too much airplay and everyone is just plain sick of hearing.
MOTU
November 12, 2009 - 2:32 pm
I hope Lieberman, loses his job, then loses his insurance, then gets sick.