The right wingnuts are always bringing up how a lot of old people died in France during their heat wave last year. But dozens die during American heat waves too.... many of them because they cannot afford to run their air conditioning, or are homeless.
What is worse, dying of the heat in a country that usually is cool and damp, or dying of the heat in a place like Phoenix or Las Vegas that is always hot because you can't afford to turn on your air conditioning in the world's richest country? Well, I have a good way to put it. The former is an act of God. God made France hot that summer, and there was no predicting it. The latter is an act of Man. Man is the reason why these people are homeless or cannot afford to turn on their air conditioning in the world's richest country, because in a land where a startup company can burn over $90 million dollars of investor money on designing a dubious product in order to make one (1) sale before collapsing, there certainly is no shortage of resouces for paying an old lady's electric bill so she can live another year instead of die from the heat.
And if it is an act of Man rather than an act of God, it is something that we can do something about. If we care. Which we don't, of course.
- Badtux the Cynical Penguin
Thank you for bringing that up. I had forgotten about all that bullcrap during the France heat wave. Now, I'm pissed off again!
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