I believe it is wrong to charge Americans astronomical prices for life-saving drugs

[Uncle Joe]

Link to tweet

[still_one]

1. I agree. Unfortunately getting that to happen quickly is not going to be easy. One of the quickest

short term paths to move toward that is to streamline and approve generic production of these drugs, until substantial legislation can be passed. However, unless we control both houses of Congress and WH, that is going to be an uphill battle, and even if we control Congress, it is still going to be a difficult process

[iscooterliberally]

2. Hostility towards profit? I really think the hostility is towards price gouging.

There's a huge difference between turning a profit and price gouging. How do republicans consistently find the most willfully ignorant people to vote for?

[Uncle Joe]

3. It's easy if the system is set up on multiple levels

to keep the people ignorant.

[LanternWaste]

6. Almost as easy as vague, meaningless answers

to keep the efficiency of the respondent's pretense of relevance intact.

[Uncle Joe]

7. I took it for granted that most people here know about this

The US was once a leader for healthcare and education — now it ranks 27th in the world

US investments in healthcare and education haven't changed much in the last three decades — and it's putting the country far behind its peers, according to a new study from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington.

After ranking countries based on their levels of education and health, the study found that the US ranked 27th in the world on these metrics as of 2016, behind a host of top-ranking Nordic countries, including Finland, Iceland, Denmark, and the Netherlands.

(snip)

When it comes to education, the nation fares even worse. The latest findings from the Pew Research Center have the US in 38th place out of 71 countries when it comes to math scores and 24th place when it comes to science.

(snip)

So, what happened in the last 30 years?

One possible explanation is the decline in US spending on elementary and high school education, which US News notes fell by 3% from 2010 to 2014, even as its student population grew by 1%. This is a sharp contrast to developed nations like the UK or Portugal, where education spending rose by more than 25% from 2008 to 2014. In Turkey — the nation with the most dramatic improvement in healthcare and education levels, according to the study — education spending rose by 76%.

https://www.businessinsider.com/us-ranks-27th-for-healthcare-and-education-2018-9

The 6 Companies That Own (almost) All Media

While independent media outlets still exist (and there are a lot of them), the major outlets are almost all owned by these six conglomerates.

To be clear, "media" in this context does not refer just to news outlets — it refers to any medium that controls the distribution of information.

So here, "media" includes 24-hour news stations, newspapers, publishing houses, Internet utilities, and even video game developers.

With that in mind, let's take a look at each of The Big 6, who control them, and what they own.

(snip)

https://www.webfx.com/data/the-6-companies-that-own-almost-all-media/

When you combine poor health, disinvestment in public education over decades, increased costs for higher education, wages that continually lag behind for 30+ years as compared to productivity, a for profit prison industry, a conglomeration of national media; (with inherent profit conflicts of interest built in) into fewer hands with the national ethos that profit is supreme in determining policies and worth along with politics driven by the search for money from the wealthiest and most powerful to maintain the status quo while more enlightened nations advance, then whether intentional or not, (and I believe it is intentional) you create a dumb-ing down dynamic for the nation.

[MineralMan]

4. So do we all. So do all of the serious Democratic candidates.

Ask them.

[dalton99a]

5. It should be criminal.

[Duppers]

8. Exactly!

[Uncle Joe]

9. I agree dalton.