Would you take a vacation in this inclemental weather?

When covid was first starting, before it was clear it was the extreme risk it is, or at least before certain people were making it clear that it was, I considered taking a vacation, due to the extreme drops in prices. Not really a vacation, as I don't have that much interest in seeing big shiny things designed for tourists. Maybe a few old cool historical sights. What I really considered is leaving my shit ass country.

America sucks. If Covid 19 made anything clear, it is that. I wasn't under any delusions otherwise before this pandemic though.

The same reasons I know it sucks are some of the same reasons we've done so horribly in this pandemic.

America has an utter obsession with capitalism. One might call it a fetish. As a result, we have horrible medical care. The idea that someone who's sick, or their family members, should pay for them to get better, is utterly preposterous.

Even some fictional dystopia would likely have better medical care.

You can't work, you can't work. You can't work, you can't make shinies. How fucking complicated is that? The idea that you should enroll in some scheme to ensure you don't die if you get sick before you get sick is utterly asinine.

In a dystopia, we'd likely get medical care based on merit, and they'd point out how horrible it was to let the others die. Except we let people die based on their income and their family's income every day. We wait in lines hoping to get medical care in emergency rooms, and talk about how horrible it is in other countries, where they wait in lines to get medical care. Except they all get medical care. We literally argue how other countries are worse, because them having to save poor people makes you have to wait longer.

Covid 19 shined a light on the industry though. All sorts of hospitals are having to let doctors and nurses go, during a pandemic, because they can't afford to pay them. Why? Because thanks to the pandemic, we stopped "elective surgeries", which despite their name, are not necessarily not required. They're just surgeries that you can technically put off.

If you get your face burned off, cleaning the would and bandaging you would be necessary. Doing extra surgery to make sure you don't look a mess, that's technically elective. Though there may be issues in regards to it healing with scars in actuality.

If you have to have knee surgery, that might be considered elective, even if your knees are degrading every day, because you can technically put it off.

So, despite the hospitals getting paid a butt-load for various surgeries, they're running out of money fast.

That's because the hospitals aren't getting that money. A lot goes to administration. A lot is fake bloat that's not actually paid by insurance and medicare...but still required of people without it. A lot of it is bullshit basically.

I'm not an expert on the medical industry though.

I wonder though if I wouldn't have been better off if I did leave the country.

After covid hit, flights got cheap AF. Any of us could have jumped on a flight to another country, and either be stuck in a horrible position, or possibly in a much better place.

I'm currently sheltering in place, and don't think I've gotten covid yet...but every time someone coughs I wonder if I'm about to get it. And I'm not in a very safe area. Every time I go out to get groceries I worry it might actually be my death run. I could get clots or something and die.

This could be the last you ever see of me. In which case, suck it, you're not getting my crypto. It will rot in my account forever!

I'm not sure it would be very easy to make money abroad if I had flown off, though it might have been just as hard or easy as making money online at home. Maybe a bit harder because laptops suck. Maybe I'd be stuck in a country that put me in isolation and provided my meals for me.

But am I really any safer here? I don't know. It's just easier because I have all my stuff here, and food and stuff.

If I jumped on a flight to somewhere in Europe or Asia, would I be any better off or worse off? Honestly, I think I might be better off. I think flying on the plane would be a risk, but once I landed, I might be a lot better off. Even if I got it on the plane, I'd probably have access to a lot better medical care in whatever country I went to. I just probably wouldn't want to leave the airport in any country where the medical care might be worse, just in case.

In America, you're really on your own. If you get sick, the burden is on you, or possibly your family. In other countries, it feels like they have some level of humanitarian concern, that they ensure people get medical care. At least some of them. Other ones may still require you to pay, but won't bankrupt you doing so.

So I kind of find myself wondering, would it be better to fly off after this whole covid crisis, rather than to stay? Honestly, I don't know.

_{Image by daleensm (source)
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