From an interview Simon did with Vice Magazine. Not all of it’s about economics, but given what The Wire was about and that his new show, Treme, is set in post-Katrina New Orleans, the way money works or rather doesn’t work for many people was naturally on his mind:
…of course it’s socialism. These ignorant motherfuckers. What do they think group insurance is, other than socialism? Just the idea of buying group insurance! If socialism is a taint that you cannot abide by, then, goddamn it, you shouldn’t be in any group insurance policy. You should just go out and pay the fucking doctors because when you get 100,000 people together as part of anything, from a union to the AARP, and you say, “Because we have this group actuarially, more of us are going to be healthier than not and therefore we’ll be able to carry forward the idea of group insurance and everybody will have an affordable plan...” That’s fuckin’ socialism. That’s nothing but socialism.
…So the whole idea of group insurance, which of course everyone believes in, like that fellow on YouTube, “Don’t let the government take away my Medicare…” You look at that and you think there’s only one thing that can make people this stupid, and that’s money.
Read the whole interview.
Hat tip Maud Newton.
That was really a fantastic interview
Posted by: Tweez | Tuesday, December 29, 2009 at 02:14 PM