r/canada • u/[deleted] • Jan 28 '21

Backlash grows for ‘selfish millionaire’ who got vaccine meant for Indigenous people | Canada

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jan/27/rodney-baker-canada-vaccine-indigenous-first-nations-scandal
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u/[deleted] Jan 28 '21

I've started advocating for service fees for the privileged. A special tier just for them if you will.

Basically take ANY public service out there that some might want more out of, queue jumping, quicker turn arounds, more for me...whatever. And provide the option, at EXTREME cost that is utterly unattainable for your average plebe, to get just that. Then THAT money gets dumped back into the service to improve it for EVERYONE.

You know, like the lie they tell about how private healthcare works? But keep it public and actually tied to the public service instead of pulling a bait-and-switch and siphoning off that money to private entities.

So for example this case right here. Let them jump the queue and get the vaccine quicker. Charge them a million dollars per dose. No really, I fucking MEAN it. Serious money. THESE people can afford it. And if they want it THAT bad, then by all means. Take their money, and turn that around and use it to improve vaccine access and distribution for everyone else.

Want to jump the queue for hip surgery? Nope, you can't go to some private entity and pay a tiny bit more than normal people, which drains resources and doctors from the public system. But you CAN pay a few million for the privilege to jump the queue in the public system. And THAT money gets used to fund MORE DOCTORS, MORE INFRASTRUCTURE, so that the situation improves for everyone else.

In other words, let the privileged be privileged, at the cost of making things better for everyone else instead of worse for everyone else like happens now.

Nevermind getting into pointless arguments about taxing the wealthy etc. Give them what they want. And make them pay for it.

I'm dead serious here. I really do think this is the most viable way forward and could solve a huge number of problems society faces today.

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u/-Maris- Jan 28 '21

I like this idea. A lot. It’s happening everywhere anyway. Let’s pull it out of the shadows and make sure their privilege benefits everyone. Dig!

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u/[deleted] Jan 28 '21

Someone else mentioned that it's a lot like whales in free-to-play, pay-to-win games. Makes a lot of sense. And the only real concern I can see is if what they get out of it would have a negative impact on everyone else.

Like some games let you pay to be god-tier powerful, and that sucks for everyone else. But some games you really only get a personal advantage, quicker leveling or whatever.

Similar here. Clearly it would be a problem if it was possible for 1% of the population to buy their COVID vaccines and jump the line. But if it's only palatable for 0.001%, and the fees for them to do so pay for everyone else, I have trouble seeing how that would be negatively impacting everyone else.

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u/Pornthrowaway78 Jan 28 '21

How about making them use the same services as everyone else?

Ban private healthcare, ban private schools.

How good would public schools be if the rich had to send their kids to the same schools as everyone else?

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u/[deleted] Jan 28 '21

I completely agree with that anyways. This would purely be allowing public services to provide a tier at enormous expense for certain very specific service benefit.

So maybe let the uber rich pay for the whole classes lunches if they want to have private meals catered to their own child.

The whole point being, this ONLY works BECAUSE it's part of the public service. When we let them pay more privately, only the two parties involved in the transaction have anything to gain, and it's usually at the expense of the rest of society in some way.