Pat's Rants

March 2010

Health Care Reform, The Public Option, and why I think we have a moral obligation,

especially as Americans, to pursue it.

Let me tell you a little personal story about myself to make a point about the Public

Option………..bear with me……..

Once, when I was a kid, and wasn’t old enough to drive yet, I mowed lawns to make

money. I lived in a small town, that, with one traffic light, wasn’t even big enough to be called

a town. We were classified as a village. Near us, there was an even smaller community that had independent phone service…..no AT&T. Two villages shared a school district and still do. There were a lot of cows. Let’s just say there were a lot of open fields……….and it was awesome.

I was 14 years old in 1984. My family owned a rider lawn mower, and we lived on almost 2 acres of property right in the village, so having a rider mower was a real necessity. I figured, with my powerful mowing machine, I could really clean up making money mowing lawns, so, I looked around for work.

Gas then was right around 50 cents a gallon, so it was easy to fill my gas tank, and ride up the street like my lawnmower was a little car, and drive from job to job. My primary source of income ended up being little old ladies who needed someone to come mow the various single and double lots they lived on. They lived on very tiny fixed incomes, were not looking for a handout, and like to tip with lemonade or a can of pop. I took on a lot of these jobs, and one thing always was the same………

Every single one of these ladies already had a kid who mowed their yard. These kids charged a minimum of $10 per mow, they wouldn’t do trim, and they usually refused to rake leaves in the fall. They were obnoxious, silly little brats, and lazy as hell. They spoke to these ladies like they were idiots, and were rude and demanding. So, I made a plan…………..

I knocked on every single one of these ladies doors, and made them an offer: If they would allow me to mow their yard, and fire the brat that was currently doing such a rotten job, I would mow their yard for $5.

I would do the trim for free, and for a $5 payment for each time I came, I would rake too. I never offered snow shoveling, because the men in the neighborhoods did that for free with snow blowers…...and I couldn’t beat free.

One by one, I got new jobs every week. Just going door to door. Eventually, I had succeeded in stealing away quite a few of these jobs from these mean kids. The mean kids were furious of course, but, if the elderly women were brave enough to make the switch, they saved $5 every month……..and that was a lot of money to them…….and it was a lot of money to me too. I was a 14 year old boy making $50 or so a month, which seemed like a fortune when glass bottles of Mountain Dew were 60 cents, and movie tickets $1.50. I felt kind of rich, funny but true.

When fall came, the sons of these elderly women would stop by my house and ask, “How much money do you need for the fall? I‘ll pay you in advance” and “How much would cost for just to pay you up front for the whole spring and summer to mow?”……………you get the idea. Nice way to buy guitars when I started playing………very nice…………….and at the same time, I was doing something nice for these ladies. I also got to drink a lot of lemonade, and practice learning to talk with women. Very helpful trait for a young man to learn.

I remember seeing a lot of really angry boys at the local party store and drug store when I stopped in with my loot to buy bottles of Mountain Dew and comic books…………as I pumped quarters into the video games downtown. It felt great.

My point?

It’s simple. The spoiled rotten kids in this story mowing yards and being rotten to elderly women are the insurance companies and heartless soulless government officials that oppose the Public Option. The elderly women are the American public, being told that the current system is all that there is, and that they better accept things as they are because anything else is madness, and damn it, this is how we’ve always done things.

The kid who charged $5 for the lawns is the Public Option. Why did I mow those lawns for $5? Because I have always hated it when people pick on the weak, the old, and those incapable of defending themselves. Made me sick then, makes me sick now.

It was a win/win situation, because the elderly women got to pay less…………..and I got to make more because I ended up with more work. We both came out ahead, and the sore loser kids who wouldn’t compete because they thought they shouldn’t have to change what they were doing got to sit home…………….and be on the wrong side of the game board.

The insurance industry as it stands now is no different from the evils of the monopolies that controlled this country’s interests in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. They are corrupt, do not care if we are all sick or dying, just as long as we keep making them a profit. A Public Option, just like the kid with the $5 charge for complete lawn service, is the way to go. Make the insurance companies compete in a way they never thought they would have to.

In Britain, the National Health Service is their version of the Public Option. In the USA, we pay upwards of 14-16 percent of our Gross National Product to pay for our current monster of a system…………and that cost is projected to jump up another 10 percent or so in the next 5 years. It will strangle our economy. In Britain, where doctor visits are free, and the public enjoys free health care, they pay approximately 7 percent of their Gross National Product. That figure has been the same for years, and is projected to stay that way. What is it exactly that we are afraid of?

As an uninsured person myself, I would happily pay into a cheaper government plan. Why wouldn’t I? I would be stupid not to………….and because I am paying into the government, our country makes money too. It’s a win/win situation……………….just like the $5 lawn care deal. When we continue to ride out the current system that has never worked and stay in the past, we, as a nation, become irrelevant. America cannot afford that option. That’s my point.

Pat Zelenka

(Pat)

(Opinions and views expressed in this blog does not necessarily reflect those of BannedPromotions.com)

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