You know, I wonder sometimes about North American society. Canada and America both do this thing where they hand off responsibility to the state, or some arbitrary authority. When I see this, I have to stop and ask myself, why would no one here do that?
A doctor, with this sign in their car, stopping and doing consultations with needy people on the side of the road would likely be arrested and charged for not meeting some arbitrary requirement that's set by some board somewhere who makes rules for hospitals and doesn't bother to think how it limits the ability to act on real problems. No doctor would consider doing this. It's outside the system, they wouldn't endanger themselves that way, even to do good.
It's strange, because we get to see these exemplars of humanity, but it's always people who have to work under the most extreme of conditions, without proper equipment, without a support team or everything we'd demand for every patient here in North America. None of us, not a damn one of us ever meets our potential as human beings, because nothing demands it of us. We never have to struggle, thus never understand what we are truly capable of.
Canada and the US are on a totally different level in terms of healthcare availability... Even without a free provincial insurance, a prescription won't cost you an arm and a leg in Canada. I think it was a $50 fee at most walk-in clinics in Ontario a few years ago. Now, for the US, although the situation with healthcare availability is terrible, there are volunteer clinics offering discounted and free services.
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u/Peter_G Aug 13 '21
You know, I wonder sometimes about North American society. Canada and America both do this thing where they hand off responsibility to the state, or some arbitrary authority. When I see this, I have to stop and ask myself, why would no one here do that?
A doctor, with this sign in their car, stopping and doing consultations with needy people on the side of the road would likely be arrested and charged for not meeting some arbitrary requirement that's set by some board somewhere who makes rules for hospitals and doesn't bother to think how it limits the ability to act on real problems. No doctor would consider doing this. It's outside the system, they wouldn't endanger themselves that way, even to do good.
It's strange, because we get to see these exemplars of humanity, but it's always people who have to work under the most extreme of conditions, without proper equipment, without a support team or everything we'd demand for every patient here in North America. None of us, not a damn one of us ever meets our potential as human beings, because nothing demands it of us. We never have to struggle, thus never understand what we are truly capable of.
It's a sobering thought.