I am not locking/filtering this, but this is academic wankery probably only of interest to few

[lapsedmodernist]

Today while.listening to my students' presentations, I was struck by how much the post-Cotonou Agreement, WTO-compliant EU-ACP trade negotiations are similar to the US health insurance model. If you are a LDC (Least Developed Country), you probably don't want to/don't have to sign the EPA, because you already have open access to the European markets under the Everything But Arms agreement. But if you are merely a Developing Country, one that either never was an LDC, or, like Kenya, "graduated" from the LDC cluster, you are forced into an EPA, because that's your only ticket to exports, even though the imports you will now have to allow can flood your market, ruin your domestic industries, interfere with food security, etc. Similarly, if you live in abject poverty in the US, you are eligible for Medicaid. But if you are just poor, then you are just fucked, you are forced into subpar health insurance racket, run for profit, and most definitely not for YOUR profit. The costs may very well outweigh the benefits, as you are served a heaping plate of shit, and told that it's for your own good. Not surprisingly, both, in the grand scheme of things, are brought to you by neoliberalism. Hooray neoliberalism!

Comments

[starkyld.livejournal.com]

That's a very astute observation.

And as an underemployed American that's not living in abject poverty, I feel it all too keenly.

[lapsedmodernist.livejournal.com]

one of the main reasons I wanted to leave the US was the health insurance situation.

[paracelsus.livejournal.com]

But remember, due to the miracle of compound interest your static assets will forever continue to appreciate in value, allowing you to borrow against their value and pay for all those shiny imports/medicines!

Right?

[lapsedmodernist.livejournal.com]

have you read the Vanity Fair article about Iceland? It was pretty awesome.

[twotoedsloth.livejournal.com]

Yup... that's the model all right!

[lapsedmodernist.livejournal.com]

It's interesting that the EU fucks the developing nations, while the US fucks its own citizens. It's truly still the national/regional model on this side of the Atlantic, while in the US it's just a class thing.

[apropos.livejournal.com]

I keep being in classes where professors (and/or students) make snarky comments about how there is "no such thing" as neoliberalism (or alternately that they "don't really understand" what neoliberalism is supposed to "mean"--reminds me of what people used to say about postmodernism) and I always wish you were there to shake some sense into them.

[lapsedmodernist.livejournal.com]

what do they mean there is no such thing as neoliberalism? That's like saying there is no such thing as Marxism. I can kind of understand saying that about postmodernism, but neoliberalism is a political ideology, that is proactive and constructive (in the technical sense of the word, as opposed to the deconstructive nature of postmodernism), that can be historically demarcated and has specific institutions, platforms, and doctrines (like the Washington Consensus) clearly associated with it. It even has its own material culture, like Fukuyama's exploded brain, and Milton Friendman's zombie brain.

[apropos.livejournal.com]

I know!!! This is why I need you there.

[christophrawr.livejournal.com]

Good looking out re: poor over abject poverty. +1.

[anthrokeight.livejournal.com]

Just read this after hearing a depressing thing about Detroit city and its catastrophic situation. And can I tell you...

I am ready to just curl up and hide.

*sigh*