This week’s column in The Kerryman newspaper.
Michael Commane
The Lauren Sanchez Jeff Bezos wedding has been in the news. Neither of them is in the flush of their youth, it happens to all of us. Lauren is 55 and Bezos is 61. It is reported that they spent €48 million on the three-day splash.
The next time you have an Amazon package delivered to your door you might ask yourself do I really need this or could I have bought it elsewhere, where the profit margin might be less.
What’s going on in the world? Was it always as crass, vulgar and mad as this? Then again if royal families have accumulated such wealth over generations why can’t commoners? It baffles me how we tolerate such inequality to exist.
Is raw capitalism good for society? How can we say yes to that if there are one billion people starving in the world?
Is the dollar bill all about greed and trying to make a fortune? At least in most countries in Europe there is an attempt to control runaway capitalism.
No matter how much we criticise our health service in Ireland, medical treatment is available to all, irrespective of how much money one has.
A cousin of mine was on a cycling holiday with her husband in France in late June and on the last day of their cycling she broke a bone in her leg. With her European Health Insurance Card (EHIC, formerly known as E111) she received all her medical treatment without having to put her hand in her pocket.
An EU agreement allows all EU citizens free medical treatment in any of the 27 countries they visit. If you are travelling anywhere in the EU in the coming months make sure to apply for your EHIC, which is available online or at any local health office.
Yes, we pay for it in our taxes and that’s the way it should be.
That’s just one example of the many great benefits afforded us by being a member state of the European Union. A couple I know who are planning a trip to Canada and the US have just discovered that he cannot get private travel health insurance as a result of his medical history.
Not too long ago he had a minor stroke and has one or two other less serious health issues. He lives a normal life for a man in his 70s, plays golf and travels around Ireland with no difficulties whatsoever. Why can’t he obtain travel health insurance?
The answer is simple; insurance companies consider him too high a risk, in other words insuring him would reduce their profits. It’s as simple and grubby as that. Indeed, why should there be age premiums on health insurance? Is that not ageism? It clearly is.
Why do we accept such rules?
Whatever about the merits of capitalism, it must be curbed to serve the people. There is no sense to a €48 million wedding splash; it adds nothing to the good of humanity. Looking around a world filled with suffering and pain there is something toxic about the Sánchez Bezos wedding.
I’m not a communist but Karl Marx’s words have always held a special place for me: ‘Workers of the world, unite! You have nothing to lose but your chains!’
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