Glen Beck’s Rant against Indians
Fox News commentator Glen Beck made some controversial comments against Indians in his television program. Responding to a question as to why health care is more expensive in the United States when compared to India, Glen Beck said “The best I can figure is all that money goes to high-tech hospitals and doctors who studied at Harvard rather than Gajra Raja medical school. Oh sure, yeah, you know, it’s weird. You can buy a Gucci bag on any New York street corner for like four bucks. No different than the 3,000 dollar real thing. They’re identical!” Comments like these on television and radio in America no longer surprise me.
Competition is tough in the American media. The name of the game is to get the attention of the people in a matter of seconds. The easiest way to do it is by making over the top and controversial statements that is guaranteed to get everybody’s attention. Balanced opinions and practical approaches will not get the ratings that the networks are looking for (the only place you will find this is on public television (PBS) and select cable networks). In addition the American public in the last ten years or so have become very polarized. This polarization in my opinion is one of the greatest problems facing the country today. Programs on television and radio are designed to target specific audiences. Glen Beck’s audience is predominantly Republicans who are religious conservatives (fundamentalists as we would call them in India).
The United States government spends about 18% of its GDP on health care (this is close to $2,200 billions which is approximately twice the size of the entire Indian economy). But about 45 million Americans still do not have health care. This is a serious problem because even if you are taken to a hospital in an emergency the first thing they ask is for your health care information. Germany on the other hand spends only 8% of its GDP on health care. But every German citizen is covered under the system. This is also true for other rich countries like Britain, Canada, Japan and Taiwan as well. So the question that all Americans have to answer is why is it different in America? All Americans should know by now that there is a problem. We can disagree on how to fix the problem. Making derogatory and misinformed comments about others will not lead to a solution.
Glen Beck goes on to add that “And also, in our research that it took us, oh about 40 seconds, we figured out that some of that money here in America winds up in the pocket of a skilled doctor that helps off-set the 20 years of schooling that he endured and the loans he took out. And – you’re not going to believe this one, some of that money seems to go to the 1 million SEIU workers in the healthcare industry that make slightly more here than in India. Because, you know, they have an American lifestyle, maybe a couple of cars, great union benefits, and homes with something that we in America like to call flush toilets”. Insinuating that Indians do not have modern plumbing systems is insulting. Not knowing that India today has one of the largest middle class populations in the world (only behind United States and China) is shocking to say the least.
I am living the American lifestyle that Glen Beck is talking about. I know that there is a lot of poverty in India today. Unfortunately Glen Beck only wants to acknowledge the poor India. I learnt very early on that the lifestyle that I enjoy is a privilege and not a right. As many Americans are discovering during the recession you can live the “American lifestyle” today and end up homeless the next if your house is foreclosed by the bank or if you lose your job. Off the cuff remarks about poor people shows lack of class and compassion for fellow human beings. Getting a doctorate degree in America is an expensive process but American doctors are also paid extremely well. So the cost of education, hospital buildings or equipment are not the reasons why health care is expensive in America.
Glen Beck signs off his program with the following commentary: “I don’t want a discounted doctor. I don’t want discounted wages. I don’t want any of this stuff. If I wanted to live in India, I’d live in India. I want not the Indian lifestyle, I want the American lifestyle. I’m sure, no offense to India, I’m sure it’s beautiful and everything. I’ve heard especially this time of year, especially by the – you know that one big river they have there that sounds like a disease? Come on, it does. I mean, if somebody said, ‘I’m sorry, you have a really bad case of Ganges,’ you’d want Cipro.” His comment speaks for itself. These bigoted comments are not funny at all.
But the most important point is that Glen Beck still did not answer why he thinks that the American health care system is expensive. He ranted about Indian plumbing, low quality Indian medial schools, made fun of poverty in India and then finally took a shot at the Ganges River. We are left to assume that he did not answer because he does not know the answer.
Related posts:
- Myth or Reality: India is prospering but not Indians?
- Indians Morally Superior to Westerners?
- UN Headquarters Should Be Relocated From New York
- Seniors in India Should Have a Living Will
- India’s Impending Health Care Crisis
Category: News & Government
May be he crossed a limit.But,can we analyse as to how of it is true?
Can we learn from criticism?
As Obama used to say “yes we can”.
Pathetic lousy American. Fcat is that America is good and free only till such time it does not hurt them. Till now they were competing with Russians and Europeans who were whites and had lifestyles like them only. Now that they have to compete with India and China they realize that things are not so rosy in this world. Incidentally, if their schools are providing education to students from India and other countries its because they get insane amount of money through this. If this were to stop let me tell you Harvard and Princeton and Stanford would come down on their knees in just a couple of years. It’s no charity that they are doing.
Secondly, if they are indeed worried about their jobs why are they outsourcing it to us? It’s just that that we are smart enough to exploit this weakness of theirs. And mind you we are not begging for it. They are doing this because it makes economic sense for them. Nobody is doing any favors to anyone here.
Lastly about Ganges, it is really lousy on his part to say something like that. If he had any spunks let him say something similar about Mecca or Mohammad. He’d be thrashed by Muslims, literally.
You are absolutely correct when you say that America is doing what it is doing in terms of immigration, outsourcing and education only because it benefits America. Although America is a wealthy nation the cost of living is relatively cheaper compared to Western Europe primary because America has access to cheap labor that the rest of them do not have.
But America is going through an internal transformation. Many Americans who fought in the World Wars and their kids are either retired or very close to retirement. The generation after that which is slowing beginning to take over the country does not have a world view that their parents and grandparents had. They also did not have to fight major wars or economic depression as their parents or grandparents did either. Everything was handed on a plate to this generation. It is a generation of excess. Many of them are unaware of the competition they are facing from countries like India and China.
Hari:
The guy’s an idiot. And, as you say, he is utterly lacking in class or compassion. He wouldn’t be worth mentioning, were it not for is ubiquity and mind-boggling influence. Pathetic. And pathological.
The more interesting point of your essay is comparing healthcare across various national schemes. I have written on the dysfunction of the American healthcare debate and in praise of the Canadian system of socialized medicine, and “participated” in a silly film set in an Indian hospital (warning: it was the drugs talking). But the most apt discussion is on this recent thread on Desicritics, which hashes through many of the issues confronting healthcare in India.