Sicko

From a review of Michael Moore’s Sicko, at Salon.com…

When Moore interviews Tony Benn, a leading figure on the British left,
his larger concerns come into focus.

Benn argues that for-profit
healthcare and the other instruments of the corporate state, like
student loans and bottomless credit-card debt, perform a crucial
function for that state.

They undermine democracy by creating a docile
and hardworking population that is addicted to constant debt and an
essentially unsustainable lifestyle, that literally cannot afford to
quit jobs or take time off, that is more interested in maintaining high
incomes than in social or political change.

…and perhaps that an indication of broader civilisational health. Our motivators, measures of success, quality of life – indeed all the metrics of modern civilisation – are economic functions…that cannot be right.