Saturday, December 25, 2010

capitalist style crime at an El Paso hospital

I've just returned from my fourth visit to an emergency room in the past five days...
Much could be said..
about the crap food for sale in the lobby:
coke and pepsi, assorted chips

the junk television: a "reality" cop show and ?sports?

Why should an entity devoted to health sell unhealthy food? It almost makes one think
that there is only one value--profits for the ruling class--and all else is only a means to that end. Perhaps the institutions in this society recognize health as a value only insofar as it serves to make the already wealthy wealthier.

Nor is it hard to see that paper, ink, and other resources are being wasted when we were given the identical pages about "smoking cessation" even though none of us smokes...

Someone has made a calculation that it is worth wasting the paper....

I'll bet the calculation did not include an assessment of the actual ecological consequences of, e.g., disposal of the printer cartridge.

It's built into the capitalist economic system that many consequences of actions are just not counted. As Quine would say (in a different context) they are "don't cares"....

But the consequences of our activities are real. It is madness and arrogance to ignore that fact.
So, to that extent economics as it seems to trickle down into real institutions, and insofar as it has practical consequences in a homely institution like a hospital, is an activity deserving of little, if any, praise. Certain ideas are being propagated amongst ordinary people, ideas which amount to a form of irresponsibility.

Dare I speak of hubris?

Important Caveat:
That's not to say that the individuals I encountered were especially rude or unfriendly or unhelpful, or "bad"......but when a system or institution or a society is organized according to flawed principles, individual efforts count for less than they might.

Additional Note:
Plainly "crime" in the title is being used in an extended use. On the contrary, it is precisely a flaw in the institutions that they allow us ignore real consequences of our actions, and do not designate harmful activities as "crimes". It's not counted as a crime at all or recognized as such. Harm is repeatedly done and there is no ready mechanism to recognize it, let alone discourage it. Indeed to speak of the crime in public might be considered rude...

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