In my younger years, I earned a degree in Business from Fullerton College. Through several economics courses, I developed a keen understanding of financial ethics. Yet, having spent my entire adult life within the mental health system, I’ve witnessed firsthand how the system prioritizes profit over people.
Our government and politicians constantly assure us that funding mental health programs will help the poor and vulnerable. But the reality? Poverty is growing stronger while those funds seem to line the pockets of wealthy investors, middle-class graduates, and insurance companies running scams. What we’re told is meant to help us often ends up hurting us instead.
Take legalized marijuana, for example. While touted as progress, it has worsened our drug problem, especially in mental health communities. Stigma surrounding mental illness keeps able-bodied individuals out of the workforce, even as they seek treatment. Meanwhile, the so-called therapy offered often feels more like abuse than care. Self-help groups and law enforcement claim their programs are saving us, yet they tell people to deny us money and leave us more impoverished than before.
Economically speaking, there are some matters that should be free of the profit motive. Healthcare is one of them. Charity and genuine assistance should be the foundation of the system, not corporate greed. Instead of addressing the root causes of poverty and mental illness, the current structure perpetuates suffering and exploitation.
It’s time to ask ourselves: Is our healthcare system truly designed to help, or is it built to harm? And more importantly, what can we do to change it?
by Dan and Bonkers
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