Thursday, April 14, 2011

The World's Most Billionaires

I just read an article listing the countries with the world's most billionaires. Here's the list:

10: Canada (gives citizens free health care)
9: Japan
8: Switzerland (partially government-subsidized health care)
7: Hong Kong
6: UK (free health care, used to give people free college)
5: Germany (universal health care here, too - the world's oldest universal system, I think)
4: India (universal system that can't keep up with demand)
3: Russia (health care system is a shambles)
2: China
1: USA

So, I don't know a lot about economics and such. Here's what I do know: Countries that can support billionaires can also support universal health care. Countries with great disparity in rich vs. poor can also support billionaires.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: This country is not broke. It's broken. We need to decide as a nation what we want to be. We need to decide what is important: supporting billionaires or supporting social justice.

1 comment:

Stacy said...

Amen.

Preparing for my annual lesson on poverty and realizing that there are nearly 50 million Americans without healthcare no longer disappoints me or makes me mad. I'm now enraged.

Party of two, it would seem. Gah.