Moral Dilemma

Security guards at a Baltimore hospital ejected a patient from the hospital during the night, presumably because she was poor, couldn’t pay, and they wanted her room for a patient who could pay. They put the woman on the street wearing only a thin hospital gown and socks when the temperature was in the mid-30s. This was obviously a life-threatening situation and yet the guards didn’t care. How can humans be so callous? Guys: put her on a gurney and park her in a hallway! That’s bad enough, but tossing her into the street in 30-something weather wearing only a hospital gown is unthinkable. It’s a death sentence.

This is what happens when the medical system is run on the basis of capitalism. Capitalism works great for allocating many resources. But when it comes to health care, capitalism allocates health care on the basis of who can pay the outrageously high medical bills and not on the basis of who needs medical care the most urgently.

America is all about survival of the fittest. That’s the way many Americans seem to want it. Can’t keep up? Then die. Can’t pay a hospital bill? Then die on the street in the cold. Can’t pay the heating bill? Then freeze to death. Can’t afford to buy food? Then starve.

Conservative Republicans, especially, believe this is the way our society should function. In socialist countries, the leaders of the pack reach back a helping hand to those who are struggling and pull them forward. In those countries the ethos is not every man for himself but rather, protect the community, help the society, so that everyone can survive and prosper. But the capitalist ethos is “every man for himself”: be strong, be fit, be intelligent and well-educated. If you’re not these things then you don’t deserve to survive. Compassion has no place in a capitalist society.

I’m not saying capitalism is without its advantages. I’m saying there is a place for capitalism and there is a place for socialism. There comes a time to spread the wealth, especially when most of the wealth is concentrated in the hands of a very few. We should not let political dogma get in the way of morality.