The World In Which We Live: Safety Is An Option Edition

In a world in which Fight Club, The X Files, and the complete works of Phillip K Dick have collided into one twisted reality we call normal (with a dash of Black Mirror and The Big Short for flavor), we now learn that software upgrades that could have prevented the crashes of two Boeing 737 Max passenger jets were available... at a price. "Want your passengers to live to fly another day? Sure, but it'll cost you." And I'm unsure who is more evil, the manufacturer for making safety features ON A FLYING MACHINE optional at additional cost or the airlines for declining to install the features. This is a stunning failure of human decency in the eyes of this writer.

Perhaps I shouldn't be so surprised. This is business as usual in our extortionary economy. In the US, medical bills are the leading cause of bankruptcy, a real-world manifestation of the "your money or your life" ethos of the street thug in literature and film. The hand wringing over what should be done differently continues as the pace increases. Corruption. Fraud. Violence. The wheel spins faster. And we look on helplessly.

This is the world in which we live on this 28th day of March, Year Of Our Lord 2019.

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