FINAL PAPER

Some patterns I noticed about the American way of life are, citizens are obliviously dependent authority. Americans depend on the government to be in control of our health care system even though those companies are trying their best to get as much money our of citizens as possible. Americas also depend on the doctors to make us feel better and women especially depend on doctors to deliver their babies even though, like the health care systems, they try to get money out of you by rushing through procedure in an unnatural way so the doctors get a chance to see more patients. Finally, in the American way of food, we highly depend on the factories that produce our food so we have have it as immediately as possible even though the way the animals and plants are treated are filled with chemicals, pesticides, and hormones. The general American way of life is like a factory, there is a certain procedure that needs to be conducted in order to save lots of time and money.

One main aspect of poverty in America we have looked at is the health care system in America and how it contrasts with other countries, more specifically looking at Canada, France, and England. The health care system has its benefits in Canada and France that contrast with the American health care system.

Michael Moore's SiCKO is a movie about those in Ameirca who have health insurance. It basically talks about how the insurance companies try to get as much money out of citizens as they can. And they compare this to other countries. In America, doctors are paid more if they deny care to patients from the insurance company to cover because they are saving the insurance company's money. While in England, the doctors get paid the more they convince their patients to stop smoking, the more they actually help their patients. It is also shows in statistics that people in England will live longer and are healthier than Americans due to the health care difference in both countries. They say the poorest person in England will live longer than the richest person in America because of the "factory"-like lives we live which are unnatural and unsustainable.

SiCKO shows a case where a man needed surgery in order to save his life, all he had to do was get the surgery approved by the hospital. But because the insurance companies need to deny services to save their money, the doctor had to deny this service which caused his death. Another case where an American woman had to pretend she was related to a canadian man so she would be able to get free health care in Canada.

The movie also compares how America is a really stressful country where there's barely a break, school for the first 20 some years of our lives, get a job with might not cover all your needs causing more stress, and because you are stressed you need to buy antidepressants and then you're thousands of dolllars in debt (like a factory). In France, after a man was treated, the doctor asked him if he was ready for another job and he was able to take three months off from work while still getting money (he doesn't even have to pay for his visit to the hospital or the ride he took to get there) and relax before he starts working again.

When sharing our personal experiences with the class, one of the students (Lauren 4/20) explained how one of her family memebers was denied care and was upset about it but did not want to show it as did another student, Binta. We noticed that we did not express our anger freely because we simply concluded that there was nothing we could do about it. This came up in SiCKO where a French man explained the the French government is afriad of the people because they have the power to protest and get free medical care. But in the United States people are afraid of the government because in the case of medical care they control the treatments you get and the care you get, and just your well being overall. Because they have this control we just accept that there's nothing we can do about it. This is also a general pattern I notice about the American way of life, because we depend so much on our authority which has so much power, we fear the power that they have and hold back on what we say despite our "Freedom of Speech" in the U.S.

In America the “normal” way of a woman giving birth is as shown in the media; the woman’s water breaks she rushes to the hospital, goes to the emergency room, gets an epidural so she doesn’t feel the pain, the baby is born and taken away for tests and such and once the baby is back it’s a happy ending. Another version of this story is that she gets an epidural, then some pitosin, the woman cannot give birth at this point, and the doctor saves the day by performing a c-section, and the mother and the baby make it through alive. These stories are flawed because of American's dependancy of the authorities in society.

The film "Business of Being Born," is a very revealing one. It lets viewers in on the differences between home births and hospital births. In modern day America we have techniques and technologies to aid child birth unnecessarily such as machines, vacuums, forceps, epidurals, episiotomies, and of course, c-sections which make the OB's life less complicated whereas most people think the doctor cares about the patient because that's what they are supposed to do but the patients are seen more as victims than as patients. In Shira’s birth experience, she felt that her home birth was simple and she did not need to be taken care of by a doctor or the techniques or technologies they use. Also very much like a factory.

Most would think doctors are people patients can depend on but because they believe they are the authority figure during child birth, the one in control (because the citizens are so dependent of them, they take advantage of the power that they have), they can do whatever they want even if it goes against what you want them to do. Because the doctor is getting paid to do what he/she is doing, they will plan to do it the way they want it. What they are doing is a form of commodity, they have to do what they have to do in a certain amount of time, and the doctors make sure the baby is born at a certain time by using techniques and technologies that are not necessarily good for the patient but efficient and convenient for the doctor. This means that if it is convenient for them to do a c-section, when it is not even completely necessary for them to, rather than risk something going wrong during child labor and being blamed for it, they’ll do it. (Rubin). When Melissa, a teacher who works at School of the Future shared her birth story she explained how she did not want an episiotomy but the doctor gave it to her anyway without consulting her. The “Normal” way of birth is in the hands of the doctor who would take advantage of that power if he wanted to speed up the process. Doctors are not as trustworthy as they seem in the ideal American way of birth because of their abuse of power and greed for money (for most doctors).

Once the child is born, as shown in the Monty Python youtube video, the child is taken away from the mother for "tests," again like a factory treating the baby as a product, not a living being. Because this happens, it takes away that mother vs. child connection that they have at child birth. For example with the dolphin giving birth, naturally, once the calf is born, the two swam together side by side. And the doctors take away that connection. Similar to a woman that I know gave birth twice, once in another country and once in America, in the other country, after giving birth she was able to hold her child and her experience of holding her baby just after her child was born was one she enjoyed. And unlike how the American way of birth is, she was able to take care of her child in the hospital with the child lying next to her. She did not get that experience with her second child, to whom she gave birth in America because the doctors took away the child once they were born. The birth experience in America has become controlled and unnatural

In the case of a natural child birth such as the dolphin's or giraffe's, no meds were necessary. Once the calf was born, they would learn to swim/stand up with their mother by their side. Contrasting with a normal child birth in America where the doctors are in control of the birth and does not allow the woman's body or the woman's baby to act as it naturally should. The doctors give the woman an episiotomy when, according to Gaskin, the cervix does not need to be mangled with because it acts as a sphincter, allowing to open and close as necessary. Gaskin also mentioned that sphincters are "shy" when the woman is disturbed during child birth the sphincter will close up. So when people are walking in and out of the room, and there are bright lights focusing on the woman, it is harder for the woman to feel comfortable pushing the baby out, which is where the meds come in. Controlling the sphincter is a mind-body connection where if the woman is relaxed, her sphincter is more likely to open up more easily whereas, if she's in a hospital where people are yelling at her to push, its less likely that she will feel comfortable and allow her sphincter to open up. The doctors make the experience for the woman artificial and it affects the woman's body. The ideal American way of birth gives the woman’s body stimulants that deprive the woman of empowerment from giving birth naturally.

As we see in the media in America today, most if not all births take place in a hospital where there is a doctor in charge delivering the birth. Based on youtube videos of a giraffe giving birth, a dolphin giving birth, Ina May Gaskin’s interview, video, and article, a Monty Python youtube video, an article about c-sections, and other birth stories, we can conclude that the typical American way of birth is highly flawed because it portrays doctors as trustworthy heroes and midwives as evil women, it takes away the woman’s empowerment, connection with her child, it takes away an experience that should be personal if she wants it to be, and it has bad after affects on the woman once she has given birth. Not only is the child treated like a product but the mother is too.

In the American way of food Industrialization helps speed up the process of producing mass amounts of food. The movie, "Vroom! Farming For Kids" shows how farming has been industrialized. Extreme machines are used to pick crops and tend the farm where there is little work for a lot of food at a fast pace resulting in lots of profit. But replacing people with machinery used by fossil fuels polluting the air as said in the article. The article, "Industrial Food is Cheap," states that the pesticids and hormones used to produce the 'best' kind of food is an input to the cancer epidemic. Whereas, if organic foods were produced, that would elimilate the use of chemicals thus decreasing the disease rate. Industrialized food is NOT cheap because although it is cheap in money, in the long run it affects the planet and all the hormones used affects us Americans who eat the food leading to risk of diseases. Food companies are willing to risk the health of humans and the well being of our planet in order to gain profit. Food in a very literal sense is produced in a factory, like the American way of life.

The video, "Meatrix" is about a pig who does not know the way he is being mistreated and what is going to happen. A cow, Moofius, informs him that the life he thought was decent is actually very cruel and will lead him to his death to be turned into a burger. "Family farm is just a fantasy," animals are not being treated like the ideal farm, raising their animals with care. The animals in industrialized farms never see sunlight or even touch ground, they are kept in small tightly confined cages to then be killed and slaughtered, 5000 cows are slaughtered per day so corporations can gain profits.

In the video where Pollan is a guest on the Colbert show on comedy central, the discussion is basically an argument between Colbert, the typical American, and Pollan who is against food corporations and food processing. As Pollan suggested that a healthy meal would be something home cooked, while Colbert replied, are you trying to "undream the dream"? implying that the general American dream (in the case of food) is to have your food already prepared so life can be more convenient for us so we do not have to spend time making the food. Americans depend on food companies to produce their food cheap and fast to have their food accessible. The media in the United States convinces citizens that the ability to get food fast and easy is good because it is cheap and accessible. The media manipulating citizens helps companies gain profit.

Overall in the American way of birth, food, and poverty, citizens depend on the authority figures to make lives more convenient, fast, and easy. These descriptions are similar to a factory. There is strict procedure to go by in order to increase profits. Similar in the American way of life, the norm is to get an education and get a job to increase profits. But also the every day factors of our lives like food are factory like.