Category: Taiwan

I know I said I didn’t want to get into why nationalized healthcare is a better idea, but I just think privatizing healthcare and education are just stupid ideas. Corporations exist for only one true purpose — to maximize shareholders values. Any first year business school student can tell you that in his sleep. And why is the Republican party so adamant in placing the two most important public facilities in the hands of private entities whose highest priority is to bring their shareholders most money possible? Sure, some companies do have a good conscience and are responsible to the greater good of the society, but guess what, those decisions are made only after sharesholder’s values are secured, never the other way around (because I think that could be borderline illegal and is against the very purpose of a corporation’s existance. Look it up. I guarantee you that if a company’s CEO purposely chooses to do good for the society but in the process lose a lot of money when he knows the other way around can make the company great profit, he will go to jail).

Many people insist that private schools consistently perform better than public schools. Yeah, NO SHIT. That’s because private schools get to choose who they want to accept into their exclusive club. Public schools have no choice because the law mandates they accept and educate anyone and everyone who wants to learn (even ones who don’t even want to be there). So you see how unfair the scores can look for the public schools in most cases. On the flip side, there are plenty of excellent public schools all over the United States that do far better than any of the private schools you can find. How does one explain that? And how does one explain all those public schools elsewhere in the world that crank out great students who can do just as well as students from private schools? In countries like Taiwan and Japan, private schools are for losers for can’t make it in the public schools (outcasts, drop outs, trouble makers). What does that say?

Placing children’s education in the hands of profit generating machines en mass can be a pretty bad idea. Let’s just for a moment imagine if all schools in the United States are privatized. What does each pupil look to the schools? Think about it…. Dollar signs. The United States has one of the highest per-pupil expenditures in the world. Private companies schools will only be too interested in getting that child for the Federal and State money s/he is attached to, not necessarily the well-being of the child. I am sure sophisticated laws, checks-n-balances, and all sorts of things can be implemented to make sure the child is doing well, but how does that differ from a well-run public school/school district where all those checks-n-balances are already in place mandated by the law? And what about the working conditions of the teachers and staff in private schools? From what I have researched, some are worse off than the public school teachers. Remember, those teachers are employees of corporations. And corporations want to maximize each employee’s time and resources to maximize the value for… you guessed it, the investors and shareholders.

I can go on forever on the topic of education, thanks to my previous job in the education sector. But I digress.

A similar arguement goes to the public healthcare system and the welfare system. Why is it that someone has to pay so much money each month into the private healthcare industry when that money could just as well go into a public healthcare fund and have a national healthcare system, much like Taiwan, Malaysia and almost all other industrialized countries? The latest Medicare fiasco under the Bush Administration is proof that privatized public healthcare just plain sucks. Who’s going to be looking out for the well beings of the senior citizens? They are often expensive to take care of when they get sick. And if we learned anything about the private companies, that is… you got it, they want to maximize value for their investors, not the senior citizens. So they’ll do as much as they can to cut corners, deny benefits and give them the run arounds to minimize expenditure (hence increasing company value).

Sure, sometimes government can be inefficient. And often social programs are huge budget holes. But some programs are worth losing that money for… Or, a better term should be, “worth the investment for.” When citizens can’t count on their most basic needs being met (the right to be educated and the right to receive quality low cost healthcare), how can the government count on them to be productive? In the case of the United States, if its government can stop spending those billions in Iraq, Afghanistan and all those efforts trying to bully other countries into their submission, maybe a lot more scholarships can be properly funded? Maybe a lot more schools woulnd’t be failing? Maybe senior citizens won’t have to decide between food and medicine? Maybe it ought to take care of its own citizens before it is out there telling others how to run their own damn government? And just maybe the United States will be respected again?

Dreams can be so cruel.