BY FRANK SALVATO
Not too long ago, a new “media” platform emerged on the Internet. Medium promised to be something of an equalizer for new media writers. Someone who took the art of communication seriously (but lacked the indoctrination certificate of the ideologically-bent journalism schools) would have the chance, if diligent, to make a reasonable amount of profit for their knowledge and efforts. But just like anything that shows even a modicum of promise where the information sphere is concerned, Medium has fallen to Progressives and Leftists.
A list of recent article titles says it all:
- If You Think Socialism’s Unaffordable, You Don’t Understand Capitalism
- The Quislings of the American Collapse
- As QAnon Goes Mainstream, Trump’s Rallies Are Turning Darker
- Fearing a Trump Return to Torture, Phycologists Keep Ban at Guantanamo
- If You Want More Capitalism You Should Want More Socialism
- Evangelicals, Catholics Attack LGBTQ Children
- Selling the Idea of Empire to Americans
- Can White Liberalism Save America
- Protests Are Not Enough. The Trump Resistance Needs Money.
- The Ethical Collapse at the End of Capitalism
It goes on and on for as far back as you care to stomach it.
First, it needs to be said (as if the aware don’t already know) that Capitalism is under attack by the Progressive Left in the United States. Ever since the election of Barack Obama, Progressives have believed they had the “goal line” in sight. They saw – and rightly so, a dysfunctional Republican Party leading a fractured Conservative Movement far behind them on the race to the finish line. The prize at the end of this finish line: transforming the United States from a Constitutional Republic to a Socialist Democracy. Progressives were racing for the goal line while the Right seemed to not even know what game was being played.
But Progressives misjudged their time “came out,” racing for the goal line thinking victory was at hand. Then the country swung back to the center from its misguided surge to the ideological Left.
The intellectual argument in If You Think Socialism’s Unaffordable, You Don’t Understand Capitalism, represents the still Progressive wing that still believes the country can be duped into believing the false promises of Socialism. The argument in the article not only doesn’t hold water, it is arrogant in its simplistic view of Capitalism. To wit:
“Yet in America, the prices of all the basics of a good life…have risen by hundreds or thousands of percent. Perhaps you think I exaggerate. Very, well, let’s review the evidence. Healthcare has risen by two thousand percent. The price of education has gone up by 1000%. Food, 300%. Rent and house prices, 400%. Childcare, 500%. Those are all conservative estimate, too, from what I reckon…
“…Predatory capitalism. In industry after industry, consolidation has been the norm. Huge monopolies have been built. Those monopolies have raised prices relentlessly every year, because that is what monopolies do — because capitalism demands rising profits, no matter what the cost to human beings is….”
“How are Americans overpaying? Obviously, there’s the direct cost — they’re broke! But then there are the indirect costs, too — the “opportunity costs”, as Americans say. Americans live five years less than Europeans. The suicide rate is skyrocketing. They don’t trust their institutions or their society. Their kids can’t afford to move out. Mistrust, despair, loneliness, rage, futility, depression — right up to life itself. These are costs, too, that American pay predatory capitalism. They are massively overpaying capitalism for the basics of life, not just with money, but with their potential — their time, energy, minds, bodies, and lives…”
“Socialism” — minor-league social democracy — just as in every other rich country, will lower the prices of the basics of life massively, systemically, and permanently. It reduces the price of all the basics of life, which American faces severe eudaimonic hyperinflation for now because capitalism keeps jacking it up…”
A cursory look at every pure Socialist Democracy proves all of this to be a load of horse shit. Venezuela, Greece, Cuba (a Communist country masquerading as a Socialist Democracy) and the usual suspect despot nations in Central and South America and Africa, prove beyond doubt in their economic demises that Socialist Democracies always – and without fail – crash into full-blown Communism or the economic upheaval of revolution; their people crushed beneath the jackboot heel of poverty and oppression.
Capitalism, on the other hand, is the only economic system – in the history of mankind – to create a Middle Class. In Socialism, Communism, Oligarchies, and Monarchies there are only the “haves” and the “have-nots.” Capitalism, even at its most flawed (yes, even with predatory Capitalism and the disingenuousness of monopolies like Google and Facebook), is a system of opportunity where one can work to elevate his or her financial situation; thus the absence of serfs and lords, and a Middle Class that spans the economies.
Perhaps what Medium should do, if the powers that be there want to salvage their publication from the jaws of the propaganda monster, is to explain why colleges (who get federal and state tax dollars, donations from Alumni and corporate America, grants from philanthropic organizations, and who still charge outrageous tuitions) are turning out liver-damaged and indoctrinated masses of uselessness at every graduation. Maybe Medium should talk about some of the shocking salaries and benefits unions force employers to pay to employees thus forcing the cost of food and housing through the rhetorical ceiling. And childcare? How about making it easier to have a one-income family so that a parent – rather than a village idiot (read: Hillary Clinton and her ilk) – can raise a child?
These are topics that should be explored by the new media (the mainstream media is too far gone to have credibility in discussing these issues), but Left-leaning and Progressive propagandists – like those who make the decisions at Medium – are more interested in social engineering and ideological indoctrination than the truth about society and economics.
Until there are people with spines enough to speak without fear; to jettison political correctness and have the courage to brand an idiot an idiot, we are doomed.
Guess Which Agency May Be Forgoing Millions in Federal Dollars?
One article that recently appeared in the Star-Advertiser was titled, “State forgoing millions in federal reimbursements.” The state agency referred to in that article was our Department of Education.
We have children from indigent families in our school system. Some of them, especially in special education, can and do benefit when they receive services from health professionals. When that happens, the school can bill Medicaid for those services.
According to the article, many states have done this. In 2016, according to federal data, the average reimbursement that Medicaid sends to states was about $48 million. The federal data says Hawaii got around $0.26 million, but the DOE says the total is closer to $0.5 million. Which is one percent of what the average state receives.
As an example, one clinical psychologist’s report on the DOE system in 2006 noted that all students on Medicaid “are entitled to EPSDT (Early, Periodic Screening, Diagnosis and Treatment), a benefit that includes both a health screen and a mental health (social-emotional-behavioral) screen periodically between the ages of 0-21. This can be done in physician’s offices, or in some states, it can also be done by Public Health nurses, even within the school setting.” Catching psychological problems early in our student base is of course important so that they don’t later become complicated and costly, and if we can get Uncle Sam to pay for such services, so much the better for us locally.
When questioned, a DOE spokeswoman quoted in the article said that the Department is “aggressively going to seek reimbursement for every service and every eligible child that we’re able to. We are committed to doing that.”
But will they? It’s a lot of work going after Medicaid reimbursements. The services for which Medicaid is billed need to be deemed medically and educationally necessary, they need to be performed by a licensed provider, and they need to be properly documented. It’s hard for doctors and their own medical staffs to keep track of all this, and there are even specialized shops who claim to be proficient in medical coding, which is the way the medical professionals are supposed to tell the federal government what was done, why, and how much it cost. How do we expect schools, which aren’t in the medical business, to wade through all that federal government red tape? Obviously, this is a nut that the typical school with typical educators is not going to be able to crack easily.
Besides, under federal law the Legislature is supposed to be adequately funding special education, period, so it’s irrelevant whether the DOE seeks out federal dollars. It is very tempting for a DOE administrator to think, “There’s no benefit for us if we do all this work because the Legislature needs to fund us anyway. The only thing we can expect the Legislature to do if we get this money, is to reduce our general fund appropriation. Who needs that?”
Providing appropriate medical services isn’t within the expertise of a “typical” school, but these days we require our schools to go beyond simple education, especially in the special education realm. Because the DOE must, and does, provide these services, the DOE should have infrastructure to take advantage of federal benefits to pay for them. That would be helpful for us taxpayers, who are supposed to be whom the DOE is really working for. Let’s make sure they keep their word and go after whatever available monies there are.