Health and Human Resources

The worth of an American citizen is seen by many as being based on what we consume that is said to create economic stimulation, what we create for others to consume, or how what we provide to others with our support and service is decided by its worth. The value of those things is based on a system that is dominated by the view that value is decided by whatever the market will bear.

Taking away restrictions of how wealth is obtained can create an empire based on consumption. It can also create a value system whereby wars become a necessity because the limits of logic create panic as well as attacks rather than the compassion that results from patient and active listening .

The way I see capitalism and consumerism glorified includes the restrictions it places on our ability to care for and understand people .We are not in need of raising those who are not valued for their contribution and considered disabled to the status of being a valued commodity such as someone seen as a worker nor do we need to bring the status of the so-called working class down to the level of others who are considered more disposable. You can't justify a question with an answer that sounds so good that people forget the validity of the question in the first place(though politicians DO try.)

Instead the issue has to do with people who are seen as disabled or non-contributors being a product of the glaring blindness of greed. What you attain or consume cannot be appropriately valued without taking into account what you waste. Unfortunately, the leaders of the United States have found that to be a difficult lesson to learn and to continue to suffer the consequences as a result.

Having autism seen as a composite of deficits would seem to me to be a natural progression of an increasingly strict and brutal demand for excellence within narrowing perimeters of diversity and the autistic community that focuses on liberation and empowerment is the natural progression of what happens when a population of people is oppressed and shows the best of their humanity by refusing to give up and accept unreasonable and unjust treatment.

Sometimes I hear the argument that because we are less competitive in the global marketplace, the dumbing down of our school systems needs to be revised and made more strict. Our schools certainly do need to be revised in ways that help us ALL (not just the elite few) to be the best we can be but our lack of humanity and the inappropriate and hurtful value system that too often results with this narrow view of excellence that defines all environments as needing to be ruthlessly competitive is causing problems rather than solving them.

The places that we need to be more strict are where the unlimited power is given to our president, our lack of judgment is leading to wars, our lack of true opportunities that are denied within what are considered minimum wage and entry-level jobs, and improving our view of the people who are receiving subsidies and finding more creative ways to empower rather than blame them for problems that society isn't actively and aggressively seeking solutions to.

Once the solutions to these problems are more actively sought, we won't have the same outlook of scarcity that includes and results from over consumption and wastefulness.

Capitalism isn't the answer to communism unless the values are continually scrutinized and researched in order to evaluate our system as it relates to humanity that is in keeping with the products and services we choose to be considered valuable. You can't take the restrictions off how stock is bought, sold, and traded and think that it will not also create more lack of restrictions for just and fair treatment of people.

No person with a disability can take away resources from someone else unless or until the true "lack" or "scarcity" of resources has been accurately determined. No one with a need of any kind necessarily needs to be a victim of social Darwinism if people's strengths are seen as something that needs to be encouraged rather than what an individual or collective group needs to compete with.

If insurance is no longer seen as "real" insurance when it a product of the government and it is also not seen as being provided as temporary aid, the potential for corruption is endless. A cycle of people not being provided with real opportunities causes them to be seen as nothing more than a problem and a worthless product that is thereby disposable.

By teaching consumerism, are we teaching that the worth of people can't be more important that we produce?

Any person that is physically handicapped is likely to have an different neurology and likely to learn in different ways as well as different speeds. Elevators, ramps, braille, and visual aids for the deaf will not continue to be recognized as necessary at all (though hardly recognized now) if the diversity of how everyone's brain works or even how they solve problems (social or academic) are not given more understanding.

If attributes are going to continue to be labeled, then differences (along with even subcategories or composites of differences) must also be labeled or they will instead be only seen as deficits and too often deficited people who have them. Hierarchy of disability and severity of symptoms has long been a tool for the division of people asking for accommodation.

All aspects of the "each according to their need" politics as well as social norms and social reform with that ideal in mind, would do well to work on recognizing more of how we are all being disabled by so many inappropriate dehumanizing values so that more people are provided the opportunity to accept and provide all that we can.