The Wind Down

What gets wound up must eventually wind down.

I watched the wind-up. Before this began sales in my office were up 40% over the previous year for three years in a row (I work in construction). Yet our profit margins were so thin we couldn’t afford to hire more people, so we just pushed and pushed the ones we had to do more. Sound familiar? ’Cause it’s pretty common. Nobody wants to pay, they just want more - more - more, faster - faster - faster.

And then, like a kiddo with a brand new bicycle, our lovely little Capitalist system smacked into a COVID-19 sized rock and flipped itself over its economic handlebars. POOF.

CRASH.

The truly sad thing is that our flawed, fragile system isn’t built for stopping at all. Like a clotted, swollen heart that’s rotted with cholesterol and propped up by stints it just has to keep beating or we start to necrotize. When they talk “essential” business everyone reacts like we’re amputizing our limbs to save our torso and organs. Which we kinda are, but that’s the point of the severity of this thing.

“It’s not worth it!” People cry. “So some of us die - that’s better than losing our livelihoods!”

Hmm....let’s unbox that for a moment, shall we?

We’re forced to stop working and we’d rather die?

Perhaps we should reframe the term “livelihood” because I saw the world “live” in front and assumed it was a pre-requisite?

But let’s go ahead and ignore our workaholic culture for one moment and look at the real issue here - those essential systems? You know, the ones we’re trying to stop from failure? If you categorized all the different types of industries as major organs which one do you think is at the actual heart of this thing?

Healthcare.

And remember that comparison to a completely unhealthy, overstrained ticker that’s just waiting to keel over any second?

Yup, that would be our American healthcare system.

It sucks.

We’ve brought that point up for years now. We’re the only first world country without universal health care; we’re also the only first world country that pays far more for less benefits with a rapidly declining life expectancy and rampant epidemics -- not the current one, I’m talking diabetes, obesity, and hypertension which, coincidentally, all contribute to the severity of COVID-19 cases too. It’s like this virus knew that we’d suck at taking care of ourselves and having a coordinated response with complete coverage for everyone and consideration for others.

When I watch people protest, scream, and pout what I’m really seeing are fools who have no idea that right now their health care system is under major assault and may not survive. Our first responders? They’re not gonna make it through this with our donated cookies and face masks. They’re going to be traumatized if not rapidly killed by this thing.

You’ve got doctors drowning in medical school debt - because if our healthcare system is a dying heart then our educational system is a single kidney on some wacko crazy dialysis - trying to work through back-to-back shifts in full-on face plates while fighting combat-level PTSD and isolating themselves from their families to try and prevent this thing from killing their loved ones.

How can nobody see this and think “Holy shit - will we even have healthcare after this???”

Nah. Americans do what Americans do best. We ignore and work through it. No sweat off our backs that those poor souls took a vow to save our inconsiderate, idiotic asses, no matter how many of us end up filing through their doors after a beach party.

I mean, face masks are itchy. And who the hell knows how to cook their own food anymore, amirite?

Damn skippy.

Die on, America.