Doug Aldeen – ERISA Healthcare Attorney and General Counsel
Why capitalism needs sick people begs the question:
A): There is no money in being healthy unless it is your own cash;
B): The health care sector of the economy is too big to fail;
“The political economy demands that we maintain our health to make our labor power fully available, lest we be marked and doomed as surplus,” the authors write. “The surplus is then turned into raw fuel to extract profits, through rehabilitation, medicalization, and the financialization of health.” It’s a radical perspective but one that may ring true to anyone who’s ever received a medical bill that’s larger than their annual household income and seen their economic value flash before their eyes. Investors have searched out reliable areas of growth in a glutted global commodity market, and they repeatedly landed on sickness.
Why Capitalism Needs Sick People (nymag.com)
