Comment 365 Michael Moore Says:
A very black mark indeed perpetuated by all those wonderful 'Christian' politicians of ours.The amazing thing about how our economic system is how expensive it is to be poor. I have been on both sides of the door, and it is really amazing how much more efficient it is to be on the better side. About the only counter example to this are the expensive hotels, which don’t tend to provide free breakfast or phone service.
If you can’t pay your credit card debt, they raise your rates (on everything.) If you don’t have insurance the procedures cost more. If you don’t have transportation be prepared to pay outrageous rates at the inner city store. If you don’t have your own home, you will pay more in rent, and if you can’t afford rent you will pay even more at flop hotels. If you don’t have a bank account, you have to go to a rip-off check cashing place.
Once I retired I relied on catastrophic medical coverage, so I never bothered to turn my bills in to the insurance company. Then my much smarter wife suggested that we do so, and in most cases our bills were halved! One expensive procedure was reduced from somewhere around $5000 to less than $800.
That is the difference between solvancy and bankruptcy for many people.
Let me be blunt. We Americans get some pathological kick out of beating up those who are less fortunate than ourselves. We do indeed punish the poor for being poor. We have structures in place that guarantee that they will never climb out of their poverty. It’s not an accident. And it is a very black mark on our soul.
