While I do believe that healthcare is a business, I also believe that it is a thriving business and is in a lot of ways very competitive. Everyone I know sees a different doctor at a different hospital/clinic and has different healthcare insurance. I think that there are a lot of doctors who have good morals and work very hard to help their patients. Maybe the hospitals themselves are concerned with finance rather than morals, but there's a reason that those business men are not doctors.
I would agree that the cost of pharmaceuticals to persons without healthcare insurance is out of control though.

I think that the market can do a lot of good. While I am not crazy about government regulation, maybe the health insurers and pharmaceutical companies need a little bit of a push or cap when it comes to overall cost to patients.
My next door neighbor is a nurse born and raised in Canada...she left Canada because she didn't like the intervention going on in the healthcare world. While I don't know what her particular gripes against the system were, it goes to show that there's really no "fix"

I agree with Felicia that people gain power through power. I thought her president example worked pretty well. The presidents of the United States become more powerful because of their earned title. Of course,they do have to earn it one way or another. So in a lot of ways other things make people powerful. Money being one of these things. I strongly believe in the whole "it's not what you know, it's who you know" example, too. It's a lot easier to get into something if you know someone who has already made it big. If you have a close relationship with a powerful person, your knowledge/ formal education no longer means as much. As for the last question, I think everyone feels threatened by power in government when it does not favor their morals or beliefs. I think it's easy to fall into the trap of some being your friends and others being your enemies. This isn't always the case, though. The debt crisis is a combination of a lot of different factors so whether you lean left or right politically, you can still feel threatened in the sense that your government may not be doing the best it can to serve you.

I agree with Joette in that sometimes it is beneficial to be extra couscous. Caution means protection. Everyone else is bringing up 9/11 and whether or not it was acceptable to have gone to war. In my opinion, a terrorist attack is a threat to our country and you never know what might come next. Although I will get a lot of people to disagree with me, I think that in 2001, under the specific circumstances we had a good reason to go to war. It was for the protection of our country. We were attacked by a terrorist group- to me that in itself is a good reason. I don't think I can say that the whole 9/11 deal was a "story" given by the government. But I do see what the article is saying in that people are more inclined to believe what the government tells them than an outside source (conspiracy). Then again, many people no longer trust the government....so this could change.

Lundry makes the point in his presentation that data can be misleading (to say the least). He also pints out that in the world of public policy it is used all the time. Do you feel as though you are being mislead in the world of politics? Do you think we would be better off if politicians and activists did not attempt to provide us with "information". Should be be responsible for conducting our own research in order to come to conclusions?

I 100% feel as though the "save africa" concept is a fad. I believe that the people who started the campaign had a good-hearted purpose for it, but as usual, American companies used it as a way to gather sales. It reminds me of how the whole organic and eco-friendly fads took off a few years ago.

It's true that Africa has made a lot of great progress over the years! Their infant mortality rate has dropped significantly (as it was one of the 10 millennium goals). You never really hear the good news...I guess it's because if people hear positive news they will assume that the problems are "solved". Obviously, this is not the case. There are still the issues with corrupt governments, severe poverty, famine, etc.

This is kind of the same idea I was getting at in my personal comment to this washington post article. I think it's kind of ridiculous we have to use high-profile celebs to raise awareness. I feel like people should have some kind of moral obligation to know things about the world that they live in. Obviously though, people do not do this. I think the whole "save africa" thing is nothing more than a trend that people and retailors use to sell products. Like the (RED) campaign...red iPods, red t-shirts...I guess it makes people feel like they're helping from a distance?? Or maybe it's just a trend like I said. I'm really not sure what people are thinking when they purchase these products.