Simulacrum Reforms Won’t Fix Anything

 This Week’s Theme: “I’ve got a bad feeling about this…” 

Courtesy of Charles Hugh Smith Of Two Minds 

Simulacrum Reforms Won’t Fix Anything 

None of the current batch of simulacrum “reforms” in healthcare or finance will fix anything; their only purpose is to manage perceptions and enable the status quo to continue on untouched. 

This week’s theme will be familiar to anyone who has seen the original Star Warsfilms in which Luke, Leia or Hans Solo utter the ominous words “I’ve got a bad feeling about this…” just before a crisis strikes.

I’ve got a bad feeling about the “reforms” being offered in healthcare and finance because they are merely simulacra of real reforms. Readers of Survival+ have noted I over-use the word simulacrum, but no other word in English quite captures the full meaning of the word, which implies a carefully executed simulation of reality for the purposes of managing perception. And what is that managed perception?

1. That the Powers That Be are “fixing” things–really, really, really.

2. That the Power Elites are not really in complete control of the State (government).

3. That the status quo systems “work”– excesses and exploitations are being “fixed.”

4. That the debt-serfdom/powerlessness/marginalization of the citizenry will once again become bearable after the “reforms” are passed (with much pomp and rhetoric extolling “change,” the American Way, apple pie, motherhood–anything other the extortist grip maintained by various Protected Fiefdoms).

Let’s start with a real-life example of the true state of affairs in “healthcare,” a.k.a. sickcare. A young couple of our acquaintance just had a baby. Labor had to be induced, the baby was delivered via C-section, and there was a brief period of worrisome complication (fluid accumulating in the mother’s lungs) which was resolved with a simple diruretic. All this led to a five-day hospital stay as opposed to the usual two or three-day stay.

The bill topped $140,000. In our completely distorted perception, this number is now “normalized” as “typical” in healthcare; $80,000 for this procedure, $120,000 for that, $250,000 for this–we have lost the ability to be surprised.

Perhaps we should ground our analysis of simulacrum reforms by starting with the typical annual household income in the U.S. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the median household income in 2008 was $50,303. (This number has undoubtedly fallen due to the Great Recession.)

Even assuming a mortgage deduction and a dependent child in the household, after all taxes (income, Social Security, property, sales, vehicle, local and state, etc.), we can reckon that the…

Read the original story at Phil’s Stock World