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Until my daughter was born, I didn't care about much. I didn't see it that way at the time, but it's painfully clear now. I didn't care about the self-assessed
by astockwell 12y ago
Until my daughter was born, I didn't care about much. I didn't see it that way at the time, but it's painfully clear now. I didn't care about the self-assessed "unnecessary details" of my own life (trivial matters like insurance, savings, my health), much less broader systemic concerns like healthcare, politics and the future. I didn't _fear_ these things.
Having my daughter has made me fear, well, everything.
How our healthcare, political, and national security systems are failing us, and in fact compounding each other's shortcomings (I'm a U.S. Citizen). How we constantly fail each other as neighbors, citizens, and fellow humans in exchange for greed, or power, or whatever, with a veneer of naïveté.
I don't know what needs to be done to arrive at a system where all manner of people, no matter the challenges they face, can get constructive, effective help. And some days it feels like we're moving in the right direction. But that day can't come soon enough.
The HN community wields an astronomical amount of power and leverage in today's world. And the community is realizing too that this influence can affect more than vacation rentals. We have the tools, knowledge, and relationships to help our fellow people in bigger ways than we've yet realized. To eat this elephant one bite at a time is the only way to make situations like this man's a relic of the past.
- x0x0 12y agoYou know, it's certainly possible to have a better mental health care system in the US. The barrier is we don't want to pay for it. Discussing this on a place like HN with a strong undercurrent of glibertarian fyigm is wasting your time and energy. See, for example, any of the threads discussing the many negative effects of the tech boom on sf; the idea that we live as part of a community and have shared responsibilities is anathema to HN.
- astockwell 12y agoI definitely agree that HN is first and foremost utilitarian. Which is why I have every confidence that, in the coming years, as the # of HN'ers who've reproduced grows, there will come a critical mass of folks out to maximize the outcomes for their children.
- xorcist 12y agoHow is it utilitarian? Utilitarianism is about maximizing the usefulness for the most people. The latter is the key. A system that is great for some, but really bad on average is as from utilitarian you can get.
- fennecfoxen 12y agoIf you'd like to improve mental health care in the United States, forget the funding issues for a moment: instead, start with disassembling the likes of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, a division of Health and Human Services which is staffed more or less entirely by "consumer/survivor"-movement flunkies and uses its $3.6 billion annual budget to oppose everything the modern medical establishment has to say about mental health and mental health care, whether it take the form of psychiatry, drugs, or outpatient treatment. But these margins are too narrow to contain a full discussion of the matter so I'll leave continued research as an exercise to the reader. :P
- _random_ 12y ago> "in exchange for greed" That's pure capitalism by design. Simply move to a more socialistic country. Having even a small safety net helps piece of mind.
- pavel_lishin 12y ago> Simply move to a more socialistic country. Why didn't anyone tell me that it was just that simple!
- _random_ 12y agoPeople immigrate/emigrate all the time.