Random Noise

Last week's Jumble

Veteran's day was last week (maybe?). It was accompanied by flood of posts thanking veterans for their service and lot of other useless blather. Okay, maybe it wasn't entirely useless, maybe it improved some people's outlook for a bit. But it strikes me as kind of weird. Maybe that's what we do instead of having a parade, or maybe that's what we do so all the people who didn't go to the parade (like me) get to hear about what all the good citizens are doing. Anyway, the military is part of our society. It's been part of human society for thousand's, perhaps even hundreds or thousands of years. It ain't going away anytime in the foreseeable future, and certainly not anytime soon. People in the military deserve respect, just like everyone else. That's a great rule of thumb, but it is not inviolable. If an individual does something rude, criminal or evil, that individual may be rightly condemned, but don't trash that entire section of society because of the actions of one individual.

Military service has its pro's and con's. It requires obedience but it provides a certain level of support (food, clothing, shelter, okay shelter might be a little iffy) and medical care. On the downside there is the risk of being killed or maimed in combat, though I haven't been able to find out whether the odds of that happening are any worse than they are for the general population. Something like 90% of the military is involved in supporting the 10% who are actually in combat. What percentage of the general population is involved in turf wars over illegal drug distribution rights? 

And then there's free health care for life from the Veterans Administration. That is a benefit I am only now beginning to appreciate. If you are not a veteran, when you get to be old you start having to deal with commercial medical-industrial establishment and what a pain-in-the-keister that is. IAman spent some time in the VA hospital this year. Being in the hospital is no fun, but the administrative side was a piece of cake. All he had to do was show his ID.

Watching the Blazers basketball game last night, I was struck by the tone of some of the ads, especially MODA. MODA bills itself as some kind of health care company but I suspect they are actually just an insurance company. They are portraying themselves like a soft fluffy pillow that can support you. Nothing about how much it costs.

A third of the people in this country are making $100,000 a year or more. That's like 100 million. That's MODA's target audience. That still leaves 200 million who are basically second class citizens. Half a million are homeless. That's like less than one percent.

The VA spends about $100 billion a year on medical care.  There are roughly 20 million veterans. That's $5,000 a year per person, or about $400 per month.