{"id":101,"date":"2004-07-20T16:01:19","date_gmt":"2004-07-20T08:01:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nargalzius.com\/blog2\/http:\/www.nargalzius.com\/blog2\/archives\/2004\/07\/2004_07_20_1601.php"},"modified":"2004-07-20T16:01:19","modified_gmt":"2004-07-20T08:01:19","slug":"what-do-you-think","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/nargalzius.com\/blog\/archives\/2004\/07\/20\/what-do-you-think","title":{"rendered":"What do YOU think?"},"content":{"rendered":"

http:\/\/newyorker.com\/talk\/content\/?040726ta_talk_schaler<\/a><\/p>\n

I don’t know how I should react to this article.<\/p>\n

I’m in total disbelief that they went ahead and granted this… “perk.”<\/p>\n\n

Issues such as this really gets me thinking. When is “enough” enough?<\/em> Exactly how much benefits must one be entitled to, to sacrifice one’s life? Is the sky the limit? Though bold and valid, doesn’t that claim seem economically insane?<\/p>\n

If the USA can afford<\/em> to bleed the taxpayers’ money to fund $100,000 worth of cosmetic surgery to a single soldier. Why can’t they allot more budget in other fields such as disease research, or simply giving homeless people a permanent place to stay?<\/p>\n

Imagine that. One-hundred thousand dollars<\/em> on a single person. That’s just for the heck of it – it’s not like she tripped on a mine and blew her breasts off. And there’s no limit to the number and types of surgery one soldier can avail of, according to the article.<\/p>\n

But then comes the main point of the soldiers: “We are risking our lives everyday. We desreve it.”<\/em><\/p>\n

I will not question how or why soldiers risk their lives for their countries. I will not even deny the fact that they are probably risking their lives, so that people less deserving<\/em> may continue living useless lives (enter the drug lords, terrorists, etc). I also, will certainly not<\/strong> put a price tag to quantify one’s life.<\/p>\n

But really now, does one deserve THAT<\/em> [cosmetic] type of benefit? Granted, cosmetic surgery does<\/em> improve self-esteem. But wouldn’t anyone agree that a soldier’s self-esteem would be better off knowing that he donated $100,000 worth of food to people suffering in other countries.<\/p>\n

I have nothing against soldiers having benefits. In fact it’s not the price but the purpose<\/em> that matters.<\/p>\n

\n

For years, the military has offered its recruits free tuition, specialized training, and a host of other benefits to compensate for the tremendous sacrifices they are called upon to make.*<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

I’m pretty sure that these cumulative costs are way above your typical cosmetic surgery. However, regardless of the cost, you will not hear me complain, since they are useful<\/em> perks… they can even be considered neccessities. Education, medical insurance, and the other benefits are very much justifiable in any social context.<\/p>\n

The only time I see cosmetic surgery as valid in the army, is IF the soldiers appearance change because<\/em> of the service.<\/p>\n

If a bullet hits their noses, fine… fix them! If they lose their arms, give them the latest mechanical arms worth billions of dollars for all I care!<\/p>\n

But, like education or medical insurance, give it to them because they need<\/em> it, and not just because it will “increase morale.”<\/p>\n

Once the governement has solved other<\/em> more important problems (such as cures for diseases, homelessness, and the like) then<\/em> they could spend all the taxpayers money for trivial benefits to increase “morale” till kingdom come.<\/p>\n

\n

After having said that. I’m thinking why do I even bother? The USA isn’t my country, but I won’t be surprised if the Philippine one day takes them as an example. After all, all faults included, the USA is still a better country than this<\/em> place.<\/p>\n

Having a bunch of people in the Philippine government not knowing their asses from their heads, they might not be convinced that the USA is currently run by a similar arse, and follow his<\/em> lead nonetheless.<\/p>\n

And I’ve been thinking about the article stating it’s good practice for surgeons. Meaning that they are actually doing to as a service rather than a commercial endeavor. I mean if they’re offering it for free anyways, why would we challenge that act of generosity?<\/p>\n

So I guess it’s not that<\/em> bad. But still, it may prove to be a sensitive point in the social context.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

http:\/\/newyorker.com\/talk\/content\/?040726ta_talk_schaler I don’t know how I should react to this article. I’m in total disbelief that they went ahead and granted this… “perk.”<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5,11],"tags":[140,774],"class_list":["post-101","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-internet","category-perspective","tag-benefits","tag-military"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/nargalzius.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/nargalzius.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/nargalzius.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nargalzius.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nargalzius.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=101"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/nargalzius.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/nargalzius.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=101"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nargalzius.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=101"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nargalzius.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=101"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}