Archive for July 21, 2019

The Nationwide Scandal Hiding in Plain Sight

https://www.truthdig.com/articles/the-nationwide-crisis-hiding-in-plain-sight/

“While the investigation mostly focused on California care homes, what Gollan discovered is a nationwide problem hiding in plain sight, “blend[ing] in to neighborhoods. What’s worse is that the proliferation of these homes, made possible through lax regulations is leading people to join what many see as a get-rich-quick scheme by opening and operating an elderly care facility.

“[Operators] know they can suppress workers’ wages, and then take in $4,000 a month from seniors and make up the difference,” the journalist tells Scheer on the latest installment of his podcast. “There are many, many entrepreneurs on YouTube promoting this business in particular as a money-making machine, and a place where you can get into the business, the real estate end of the business, flip a house, make a few adjustments, and care for a bunch of seniors, open a care home and make a lot of money.”

“JG: Well, so that’s the median cost per resident to stay in one of these care homes per month. So these care homes can often make, from six residents, about $250,000 a year. And so you can see why it would be quite lucrative. And they’re basically promising to provide all of the care that many, you know, working parents cannot provide to their parents, because they’re caring for their children, for example. So they’re filling a need, and the industry has grown incredibly over the last decade, and they’re taking on these increasingly ill patients.”

This reminds me of the “Grapes of Wrath” John Steinbeck,  1939.  Could it really be that these kinds of exploitative practices have been going on for centuries?  Capitalism has matured and become the most exploitative institution the world has ever known.  Married to materialism, this union has established a worldview that will take this civilisation down.