131 points

A place that prioritizes profit over care has worse care service? Never would have guessed the outcome.

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12 points

But they had better profits, so it’s worth it. Unless you’re sick or poor, in which case who cares

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6 points

Not to worry! The competition of the elderly and terminal who are living there will allow them to just pack their bags and move to another place easily and without impact to their wellbeing because of their freedom of choice in this wonderful free market guided by the invisible hand

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77 points
*

It’s almost like privatizing public services is, somehow, a bad idea. But, but, but… capitalism…

E: jokes aside. The findings in these studies, while obvious to some (possibly most) people, are extremely important. Feelings without supporting data, are just opinions. Feeling with supporting data, are facts. Because of this study, we now have facts to fight against further privatization of public services.

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22 points

I don’t know, I’m starting to get the sneaking suspicion that “good” and “profitable” aren’t synonyms. It’s almost as if there is often a financial incentive to make things worse…

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10 points

Right. Like they deliberately make good things into shit. I wish there was a good term for this phenomenon.

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11 points

Greed.

No, no. Unabashed greed.

No, take it all the way. Fuck the little people to support my unabashed greed.

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4 points

Enshittification. Coined by Cory Doctorow.

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3 points

It’s called “rent seeking.” Even if some ya sci-fi author tried to coin a new term, there is nothing new about this type of behavior.

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0 points

hmm, if we follow the example like “desertification”, how about “shittification”?

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4 points

I’m starting to get the sneaking suspicion that “good” and “profitable” aren’t synonyms.

They’re polar opposites.

Maybe one day there will be politicians with the balls to actually do something about it.

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4 points

Quality, especially in a service like healthcare, often doesn’t mean profit. It’s all about “how low can i make my overhead costs to make my good/service just BARELY passable, then take it one step lower”.

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You don’t need supporting data to understand businesses will do whatever will maximize profit.

This intrinsically means charging the most while providing the least.

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5 points

Not to understand, no. But to fight it in a legal court, you need data and fact.

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72 points

I’m shocked. Shocked!

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30 points

Well, not that shocked.

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12 points

Actually, we all saw this coming.

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3 points
*

like we read the script a few dozen times before.

this is the part where we were supposed to be shocked, though. Hey everybody, gasp!

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67 points

If you are surprised by this you probably have a poster of Ayn Rand on your wall.

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11 points

Glad this was the top comment for me. Don’t need to scroll any further.

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59 points

Capitalism ruins everything it touches.

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40 points
*

Many of these hospitals were capitalist before the takeover too – they just were beholden to local owners rather than big national firm owners.

Local ownership is a VERY powerful check on the power of capital. Communities can hold sway over owners beyond what is reflected the general ledger of the business. And one of the reasons big national brands are good at out-competing local business is precisely BECAUSE they can ignore these social costs – even externalize them – and reap further profit for the exercise.

Even if you’re anticapitalist as fuck, this is why it is still important to buy and support local business whenever possible. Because the less local the business is, the less it cares about its customers and employees’ welfare.

And when local owners get greedy and want to sell to big firms, it’s very important to hit them with as much social punishment as possible. Friends don’t let friends sell their businesses to hedge funds.

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32 points

Local ownership can cut both ways. Local businessmen reach a certain level of wealth and power and can essentially take over the entire town. It’s how you end up with situations like the Murdaughs.

However you look at it, the overconsolidation of wealth always has negative impscts.

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2 points
*

Also a lot of hospitals were not for profit. It may upset the atheist crowd here but they were run by religious organizations as charities. Not that they didn’t make money, but everything was reinvested back into care.

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1 point

They also reinvest in their communities, whereas big corporations siphon up all the capital, and abscond.

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