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   Rich Felker (dalias@hachyderm.io)'s status on Saturday, 06-Sep-2025 00:30:16 JST Rich Felker

   in reply to

   • myrmepropagandist
   • Sam Levine

   @futurebird @SRLevine Unless they can guarantee a quick death to the folks they deny it to, preventive care SAVES MONEY for the insurance companies. This isn't about money. It's much darker.

   • Embed this notice
     myrmepropagandist (futurebird@sauropods.win)'s status on Saturday, 06-Sep-2025 00:30:18 JST myrmepropagandist

     in reply to

     • Sam Levine

     @SRLevine

     I can understand the scared and confused antivaxer mom more easily than I can understand those in insurance, government who look at the modest (relatively speaking) cost of a vaccine, or clean water, or public toilets or seat-belts and quail because they think "What else will the rabble demand?"

     After all, there are so many simple things we could do that could save many lives.

     And so they muddy the waters, keep the "debate" rolling just to save a blood-soaked dollar.

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     myrmepropagandist (futurebird@sauropods.win)'s status on Saturday, 06-Sep-2025 00:30:19 JST myrmepropagandist

     in reply to

     • Sam Levine

     @SRLevine

     No, but I should check that out. I was just watching RFK in his congressional hearing.

     And thinking about how, even to me, it seemed implausible that this could just be about not wanting to pay for universal vaccines for everyone. That there are people who are alarmed and horrified by people getting yearly vaccines for the flu because if they admit it saves lives ... what else will the public demand?

     Better for every mother to "do her own research" and feel frightened.

   • Embed this notice
     Sam Levine (srlevine@neuromatch.social)'s status on Saturday, 06-Sep-2025 00:30:20 JST Sam Levine

     in reply to

     • myrmepropagandist

     @futurebird Did you also read Jessie Singer's There Are No Accidents recently?

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     myrmepropagandist (futurebird@sauropods.win)'s status on Saturday, 06-Sep-2025 00:30:21 JST myrmepropagandist

     in reply to

     To lose that battle wouldn't just cost them in nylon and the cost of steal buckles, it would represent ... creep. Creep towards the notion that they were in part responsible for the thousands who died in car crashes each year.

   • Embed this notice
     myrmepropagandist (futurebird@sauropods.win)'s status on Saturday, 06-Sep-2025 00:30:22 JST myrmepropagandist

     How much do you think it cost automakers to add seat-belts to their cars? Probably not that much, when compared with the overall cost of the car. This made it seem incredible to some of the public, for a time, that car manufacturers would be fighting legislation to force them to add seat-belts in bad faith.

     But, there was, and always is, a lager issue at hand. To the auto industry seat belts represented public responsibility for the overall safety of their product.