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roachboy · 01-23-2009, 01:04 PM

i would say more welcome to capitalist ways of understanding and organization extended to areas that it should not be extended to. the va system is as it is largely because it simply an area in a budget and so is subjected to budgetary constraints--as policy-level priorities shift in a context of "fiscal conservatism"--you know, tax cuts for the wealthy that reduce inputs and so generate problems of allocation--the va system gets squeezed. the effect of this treatment of the va as an area of a budget like any other is that the vets who rely on it for health care get treated like objects.

so if there's a general cause of this, it's the conservative assumption that all forms of social relations can be made equivalent by subjecting them all to the effects of number.

so it doesn't matter what anyone within the system might think about vets, or what they do. the neoliberal way of doing things means the numbers run the show.

one thing that nationalized healthcare systems do---particularly more sophisticated versions of it (so not the british model, which is only prominent in the states because folk only read english in the main)---is to limit the extent to which medical care can be assimilated into the general logic of capitalism.

so i think the treatment being meted out to vets is a direct consequence of the logic of private health care as it currently operates--which is like a corporation.

and within that, you have this bizarre split between the numbers, which are "real" because they're "objective"---and the effects of this kind of thinking on actual human beings who have served in the military---which are less "real" because they're less "objective"....the effect of this strong enough that the fact that folk sacrifice themselves directly and indirectly by passing through the military end up being treated as cannon fodder after their service is over DESPITE all the talk you hear from the right about how important the military is to the the right in particular, and to the country in general.

so either everything about that way of thinking is a lie, or there's something else going on that explains the contradiction.
i think this is a plausible explanation.
it's ugly--but so's the situation it refers to.

01-23-2009, 01:04 PM	#6 (permalink)
roachboy Super Moderator Location: essex ma	i would say more welcome to capitalist ways of understanding and organization extended to areas that it should not be extended to. the va system is as it is largely because it simply an area in a budget and so is subjected to budgetary constraints--as policy-level priorities shift in a context of "fiscal conservatism"--you know, tax cuts for the wealthy that reduce inputs and so generate problems of allocation--the va system gets squeezed. the effect of this treatment of the va as an area of a budget like any other is that the vets who rely on it for health care get treated like objects. so if there's a general cause of this, it's the conservative assumption that all forms of social relations can be made equivalent by subjecting them all to the effects of number. so it doesn't matter what anyone within the system might think about vets, or what they do. the neoliberal way of doing things means the numbers run the show. one thing that nationalized healthcare systems do---particularly more sophisticated versions of it (so not the british model, which is only prominent in the states because folk only read english in the main)---is to limit the extent to which medical care can be assimilated into the general logic of capitalism. so i think the treatment being meted out to vets is a direct consequence of the logic of private health care as it currently operates--which is like a corporation. and within that, you have this bizarre split between the numbers, which are "real" because they're "objective"---and the effects of this kind of thinking on actual human beings who have served in the military---which are less "real" because they're less "objective"....the effect of this strong enough that the fact that folk sacrifice themselves directly and indirectly by passing through the military end up being treated as cannon fodder after their service is over DESPITE all the talk you hear from the right about how important the military is to the the right in particular, and to the country in general. so either everything about that way of thinking is a lie, or there's something else going on that explains the contradiction. i think this is a plausible explanation. it's ugly--but so's the situation it refers to. __________________ a gramophone its corrugated trumpet silver handle spinning dog. such faithfulness it hear it make you sick. -kamau brathwaite