I am against the business model of capitalism as applied to commodities and medicine. I am against the business model of psychotherapy, where psychotherapists are paid little, have no say in titrating the dosage of treatment, have no say in rejecting patients whom they feel are a poor match, have no ability to close cases because the patient requires a more intensive treatment modality, and have no say in the number of patients in their caseload. (census, census is our goal). However ill the therapists are paid, their managers, who carry no caseload, get 5-6 times as much. Since the therapists work for so little, their supervisors concomitantly think little of them and berate them and manipulate them. Patients pick this up and disrespect both the therapist and the process. It becomes a matter of bringing in benefit forms and demanding the therapist sign them. (I originally typed--sigh them). And all other sorts of forms--"I can't do jury duty forms. I need my pet dog/cat/turtle/goldfish/cicada to be granted therapy pet status forms." ( And management sides with the patient--the consumer is always right. Besides, what if they go elsewhere. Census. Your value as a therapist is based solely on how many patients you treat (process) weekly. How many billables do you do. Your training, your scholarly output, your presentations, your grant-possibilities--nicht gornish hilpen. No matter that you have no training in evaluating therapy pets or whether or not someone can serve on a jury. This is not any better in private practice--when you receive $200 or more per session, no one wants to risk the source of their mortgage payments going elsewhere. You are no longer a free person if you practice this way. You owe your sole source of income to the consumer. You are not a doctor. You are a provider--of endless goodies--therapy pets, jury duty, masklessness, whatever.
When I first started working at neighborhood clinics, I worked p/t. I saw 8-12 patients a week. Each patient was seen a minimum of 1x/week. I saw several patients 2 or 3 times a week. Most of my patients were not on medications. Patients on medications were told this is a psychotherapy clinic and the psychiatrist and therapist communicated with each other. If the therapist felt the patient was not working, then the patient would be confronted and informed that therapy was very important in their recovery and that if they didn't want to participate, they could get the medication--note the singular--from their internist. Ah--pre-census. Pre-efficiency of whatever. Pre-profits in numbers. At first, therapists were sweet talked into seeing patients for 1/2/hour--more patients/day, more $$$. Some therapists resisted. Later on, the option was off the table. Do it.
I did this not to make big bucks. I did this because it was inherently satisfactory. I taught, did research, and did testing. I enjoyed all of these and that's where the bulk of my income came.
I am against the business model of selling. I am against chain stores and chain restaurants. I want to go somewhere and eat at a unique setting. I long for the 1980's, when one could go to David's Cookies and Mrs. Field's cookie shops, pre-acquisition by big food. After acquisition by big food, quality goes down, business goes down, and the stores become neglected, dirty, and close. To be replaced by banks or chain drugstores. I don't want to visit Vancouver's and hover in Starbucks. I would go to Horton's.
I sound like my father--Schraft's. Barton's. Black-out cake. All gone.
I have not gone to a "coffee" shop to partake of a hot beverage in over 10 years. I enjoy making my own coffee and my coffees are artisanal and of higher quality than any I have ever had in a "coffee" shop.
For example, I discovered about 3 years ago the delicious subtlety of oat milk. I prefer a certain brand of oat milk and added it to my perked coffee, sweetened with maple syrup. I make a day's worth of hot coffee by placing it in a thermos, steaming the liquified oats, and then savoring it throughout the day--always steaming. And the cost is much less than $6/cup which I would pay in some hipster doofus "coffee" shop, sans maple syrup.
At present, I have decided to diversify and try my hand at Vietnamese coffee. I place one and a half tablespoons of condensed milk at the bottom of my cup, brewed coffee ala Turka, filtered it over the milk, and stirred. Yum.
I understand this is ill-suited to the business model of making coffeehas, which has to be brewed per order. It takes about 10 minutes to make. Not efficient. And, it is not a popular brew, so few customers would be interested-- want it fast and homogenized and efficient, regardless of taste or quality. Efficiencies of scale is our national anthem. Vietnamese coffee cannot be made in bulk, and would probably cost at least $8/cup. I do not come in multiples. I am single serve only. Sad for me. I can't sing in chorus.
Sadder--and--back to the topic of patients are customers who get all sorts of free get out of obligations of humanity notes and abuse psychiatric diagnosis to "avoid" wearing masks and the psychologists/psychiatrists who abet them. Yes--people are anxious. Yes, people have panic. Yes, a heavy piece of cloth around the mouth and nose can exacerbate this----but, and this is a big but---what is the purpose of therapy but to overcome--not indulge--in personal psychopathology. Systematic desensitization. Exposure treatment. Cognitive behavior. Many ways of overcoming. Reconsidering--instead of feeling panic, feel secure. You have this power. You can chose to be ill. Or you can chose to be better. But this was before the business model. Now they are "consumers." If you dos n't give them notes, they will go elsewhere. In the old days, that was their right. Clinics valued their integrity. Ah, integrity. Gone with the sin.
At any rate, if you cannot wear a mask, you cannot go on a plane. Period. What if the plane loses altitude and you need to put an O2 mask on? You can't put a mask on because it induces panic/anxiety? How are you going to tolerate the O2 mask?
If you cannot tolerate masks, then you should not buy an airline ticket. And since you can't go on the train or bus either, as you have to wear masks there as well, then you will have to rent a car.
Why is no one cooperative. Or even civil. How is it that asking to put on a mask leads to fisticuffs?
No one likes to wear a mask. But we cooperate in order to be considerate and have a coherent society.
So airlines--make sure before you sell tickets on those sites, before you take the credit card info, the potential traveler has to sign a contract and that violation of the contract means they will not be able to board the plane.