I just finished watching Sicko by Michael Moore. It discusses the American health care system, and the unfortunate state that it's in. Their lack of universal health care and the health insurance and drug companies wielding so much power creates a system where many people fall through the cracks.
I'm sure there are plenty of people who can make good counter arguments with valid points, and I don't want to debate the integrity of Moore's argument, but the film did bring up a broader issue for me. That is the issue of ownership. I started to think about who owns this country, and of course, if you work it backwards from the government, you realize, we own this country. We, the citizens of Canada, are also the owners of Canada. When I thought about it this way, I thought not only of my privileges as a citizen, but of my responsibilities.
Unfortunately, I don't own property yet. But I do have an apartment, and I will someday soon be in the market for a condo. And whether it be in my apartment, or my condo, I will ensure a certain way of doing things is maintained in my space. I will make sure that my place looks a certain way and maintains a specific standard. I will ensure that the people who come in to my space are treated a certain way. This is my space and I must take the responsibility for it.
I think you see where I am going here. As citizens of Canada, we should take responsibility, ownership for our space. We should make sure that it looks a certain way, maintains a specific standard. We should ensure that people here are treated in a certain way, and I think most of us would agree that we should be treating everyone fairly and hospitably.
This is why I reject the American notion that low taxes are always good. Sure, I believe that governments need to be efficient with our money, and should be held accountable when they are not, but we shouldn't be thinking about taxes just as us handing money over to the government. We really should realize we're paying for something, and I'm actually proud of that fact. To be honest, maybe we should be paying more. As Canadians we often get a sense of pride when we talk about our healthcare system to non-Canadians, as we tell them that we don't pay a dime for our care in the hospital. But internally, when we talk to each other, we know it could be better. And what about countries like Ireland, Germany, Denmark, Spain, and Sweden that offer free post secondary education? Shouldn't we do the same? Shouldn't we be making sure we can keep up?
Many people believe that embracing these policies would mean we were socialists, and that this is a bad thing. Some people might think that it would take away the notion of working hard and attaining your (American) dream. I reject this as well. There is still differences in lifestyle in those countries. In fact, you can bet there is still great disparity between the rich and the poor in those countries. But I think the difference is ownership. We know that everyone deserves the right to health care, and we know that everyone deserves the right to an education, but in taking ownership, we should realize that a high school education isn't good enough anymore. And if we're going to take pride in the place that we live, we should extend that to our entire country. We shouldn't just accept the fact that we have broken roads, run down schools and unsightly neighbourhoods. In the 21st century we shouldn't allow ourselves to deny some of our own people access to clean water, a warm bed and access to the Internet. Yes, I said the Internet. This is now a basic need!
As a so-called developed country, we cannot simply stop our innovation here, and wait for others to catch up. When we as a nation of people take ownership for our place on this planet, we can lead the way, and show the rest of the world the direction to go in.
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