8 ms·
Why are the poor blamed and shamed for their deaths?
- ggm 9y agoI think the (Ayn)Randian world view which is being very solidly espoused these days may have something to do with this. I find a lot of my US resident friends, working in the ICT sector are very self-actualized and their resentment against poverty interventions, health or otherwise vocalize as 'they made bad decisions, they have to learn from them' which of course, in the case of dying, is a lesson hard (to) learn. I don't think quite so many people in the northern european high tax welfare state economies do this but I certainly have heard it there too. I think grumbles about 'why them: why do they deserve more compassion (than me)' are timeless There is a lot of this vibe in Australia. It's been bred into us by successive rounds of government, handing back tax which re-inforces a believe needing tax spend to equalize society is inherently bad. A friend says to me quite often that the generation which invented the functional welfare state, the one which fought in the WWII is dying out, and with it, the compassion which arose from that fight. Maybe he's right? Maybe it took a giant war about rights and responsibilities, to drive people into cohesive, socially just models, which are now on the long tail. 'we can't afford it' feels like the background story to this. resentment about 'my tax dollars' being spent to prop up somebody else's bad lifestyle. I think. Anyway.