About 20 years ago, Denzel Washington and Dakota Fanning were in the second adaptation of Man on Fire, directed by Tony Scott, known for making high-octane action thrillers. The movie was based on a book published in 1980 written by British novelist Philip Nicholson under the pen name A.J. Quinnell.
The writer was inspired by the 1973 kidnapping of John Paul Getty III in Rome as well as when the eldest son of a rich Singaporean was kidnapped by the Triads. The novel and the 1987 movie adaptation starring Scott Glenn are set in Italy where wealthy families would high bodyguards to follow them and their family around. In today’s American society, rich people have always had bodyguards.
However, some celebrities have taken their chances just like the rest of us do. It’s wildly known that Keanu Reeves will sometimes be spotted on a subway train or even a mass transit bus, which is fitting considering one of his best movies is Speed. Ed Begley Jr., an actor from St. Elsewhere and Young Sheldon and other movies, is well-known for his eco-friendly lifestyle which includes taken the subway to attend this year’s Oscar award show. And prior to his death in 2022, actor Gilbert Gottfried wouldn’t even spend the money on a subway or bus pass as he was known to just walk to places.
Every day when I worked at Dollar Thrifty, at least one call was from someone wanting to know if the daily or weekly price on their upcoming rental had gone down. One time, it was a so-called doctor who was very curt barely letting me get out my standard introduction of “Welcome to Dollar Thirfty, my name is Zane, how may I help you?” He wanted to know if the rate on his upcoming rental had gone down. I went into the system and check and no it hadn’t. It was standard to begin every negative reaction with a “Unfortunately, sir (or ma’am) at this time…”
I didn’t even get through saying if he was interested on checking other vehicle sizes or locations as I believe it was in Orlando or Las Vegas which had multiple locations. He abruptly hung up on me and I was on to the next call. Now, if you want to know how I knew this guy was a doctor because I could pull up all his information. I believe he might have been a Blue Chip member. At that time, I was just working the calls for Thrifty before I moved to the International Line.
According to statistics, medical doctors depending on their concentration and field can make anywhere between $235,000 to $353,000 a year on average. That doesn’t include what others make especially if they live in a bigger city and at a hospital, surgery and private practice. They make a lot of money because they perform a service that literally means life or death with a patient.
I could never be a surgeon. I’d be too worried that I’d botch something up. But doctors that get up at 3 or 4 a.m. every day to be at a surgery by 6 a.m. so they spend the next 8-10 hours on a serious surgery deserve to get paid more than peanuts. Remember that picture from National Geographic of Dr. Zbigniew Religa sitting watching a monitor off camera after performing a 23-hour heart surgery on a patient who was still under sedation right next to him as an assistant caught a brief shut eye in the corner?
That doctor and his colleague deserved a good payday, especially consider the patient, Tadeusz Zitkevits, outlived Dr. Religa and in 2022 did a photo shoot holding the picture. Yes, doctors may be cocky and stubborn at time. But they’re not always paid to be charming. A doctor with a poor bed-side manner could do a quintuple heart pass with one hand tied behind his back and singing ABBA songs in his head. But they could freak when a patient or family member cries hysterically after getting some bad news.
I’ve had my issues with people in the healthcare field, both personally and with those close to me. The majority of the times they are considerate to our needs. And many people in my family have or continue to work in the field. My father told me at Thanksgiving my step-brother’s son is training to be a nurse. So, that’s another one.
Another thing nurse doe is draw blood and I’ve been stuck quite a few times. While I have no problems with needles, I do like it when they get a hole in one, or two. But I was stuck eight times in 2010 when I had to go under for a colonoscopy. And I had drunk water the day before too.
Even the poor orderlies and nursing assistants who have to do the dirty work of cleaning up patients if they become incontinent or blow chunks from severe food poisoning. I know some people who are in the hospital beds try to be decent but when you got to go, you got to go. And if you have a catheter inside of you that overflows, you can’t help that. It’s the IV liquids they’re giving you.
That all being said. If there is one person in the healthcare industry who doesn’t deserve the pay they receive and that’s the bigwigs of the healthcare insurance companies. Imagine paying your landlord $1,000 a month to rent a property and then being told that you can only spend one 12-hour period inside the property. You also can’t have access to the property during certain months. Then, as you’re about to take advantage of the time you do have with the property, you’re immediately told it can only be for four hours.
There are many scenarios to describe how insurance companies take your money and don’t give you anything in return. If you’re getting where I’m going with this, I’m talking about the murder of Brian Thompson, CEO of UnitedHealthcare earlier this month. Now, obviously, I don’t condone violence whatsoever. Murder is murder is murder. Yet, as a Zen Buddhist Pacificist with Democrat Socialist views, I also believe in karma.
And I do believe that you can only kick a dog so many times before the dog bites back. Sadly, in that case, we often euthanize the dog. But it seems not anymore. The lack of empathy for Thompson and his family has spread over social media and the Internet. And I have to agree with their sentiments.
How many people have watched their loved ones in pain? Hell, how many people have been denied benefits they were supposedly paying for and are now permanently affected? And now that we have let that son of a bitch Trump back in office, his billionaire buddies want to make it worse for us.
Yes, it’s bad for Thompson’s family but his net worth was $43 million. I hate to sound cold, but his wife and children will be fine. They won’t have to turn to community dinners or GoFundMe to get money for how this will affect them. And it’s come out that he was malicious in his work by implementing an AI system that would deny coverage to 90 percent of its customers. If any other business took your money and only gave you 10 percent of what you paid, you could get them for fraud. If you went to go see a 90-minute movie and they only showed 10 minutes and refused to give you your money back, you’d be upset.
So, why should people feel any sympathy for a businessman who wanted to rip customers off, especially if it was going to leave them in poorer health? Hell, Boomers and Karens throw fits if they just have to wait in line. Imagine being one of 10 people waiting in line who doesn’t get service. And you already pre-ordered and they refused to give you anything. Even worse, they say if you want to use their services again, they’re going to charge you more.
And they’re not going to pay one cent out unless you meet a $5,000-10,000 deductible. When Thompson was born 50 years ago, his parents probably didn’t even pay $5,000 for his birth and mother’s stay. My ex’s niece had a baby that had health issues that amounted to $1 million in medical costs and expenses. This was well over 20 years ago. I can imagine it’d be a lot higher now.
However, they wonder why some people are choosing not to have kids and just get pets. I’ve started feeding my cat canned food as she’s gotten older and her teeth get harder to chew dry food. It’s probably a lot cheaper in one month to feed her than it would be to feed a real young child in one week.
Wealthy inequality in America is at its worse and America is in danger of turning into an oligarchy who keep rising the prices on things. Just 10 years ago when I was in Branson, Mo., I noticed the Walgreens was selling a 12-pack of Coca-Cola for $4.99 which was outrageous. It was because prices were higher in Branson because its a major tourist area. The Wal-Marts in my area are selling 12-packs for $7.64 on this date. In college, I could get a 24-pack and a 12-pack for that price with 14 cents left over. That was 1997.
As college football bowl season is about to begin, many of those colleges will be receiving a lot of money in advertising and marketing while continually increasing tuitions to pay multi-million dollar salaries to football players who don’t even get to the major playoff games. Yet, some workers are being told they’re not getting their Christmas bonuses this year because of Trump’s pending plan for tariffs. And that pizza they’re “rewarding” you with is being written off anyway.
So the next time a corporation asks you to donate a few dollars to St. Jude’s, The Salvation Army or Children’s Miracle Network, say “Fuck No!” They’re going to use your donations and others to present to these charities as a donation write-off.
People are growing tired of being used and abused by a system that punishes them and expects for them to feel its their fault for being punished. If you were in a relationship like this with another person, you’d get out. If you knew someone in a relationship like this, you’d try to get them out.
So, why do we still act like it’s the only system that works? Why are we letting a South African person like Elon Musk who never really created anything but made investments tell us how we need to cut our corners to get by. Life shouldn’t be about cutting corners and getting bad. That’s not living; that’s surviving. And it’s no surprise that someone born to rich parents during the era of Apartheid would not care if other people suffered.
As I’m writing this, police have a suspect Luigi Magione they’re considering, but social media has made a hero out of the shooter. It comes upon the news that Daniel Penny, a Marine, was acquitted in the negligent homicide death of Jordan Neely, a homeless man with a history of mental illness who was choked to death on May 1, 2023 on a Manhattan subway train. People hailed Penny as a hero. It should be noted Penny is white while Neely is black. Neely reportedly was threatening people. Thompson’s policies let people die and got rich off it.
Insurance companies executive have blood on their hands. And their wealth is blood money. If you cheer Penny on while saying Thompson’s shooter deserves to be prosecuted, you have your priorities out of whack. A manslaughter charge against Penny was dismissed after the jury was deadlocked. Murder is murder is murder. A Marine should’ve known better. The only difference is Thompson’s murder was premeditated.
Our judicial system has always benefitted one group of people over the other. How much longer can we keep euthanizing the dog for just defending itself? It’s getting to the point people are tired of defending the dog kickers, especially since they’re the ones who are wanting us to feel sorry for them.
The next question is how much are bodyguards willing to defend their lives to protect the dog kickers.
What do you think? Please comment.
Zane Says 