1967 -- Dustin Hoffman -- The Graduate
My husband and I watched this movie on Friday night. How weird. Last time I saw this I was The Graduate. Dustin Hoffman's annoying elders were my annoying elders. The Establishment (everyone and everything made or born before 1946 or so) - was: old, 'square', prejudiced, pedestrian, xenophobic, stupid, wasteful, mean spirited, (of course - annoying) warmongering, capitalist - and had a bad ear for music - and just did not understand us at all.
You have to remember how different our lives were -- 1966 marked the year that contraceptives became available to all. And a year or so before birth control pills were readily available. I grew up during a time that girls that got pregnant were not accepted in the community and would only be married by the lowest form of man. (A girlfriend of mine was raped and her mother bemoaned the fact that the community knew it because now her daughter was damaged goods - and not a virgin).
So, watching this movie was strange -- I identified with Dustin Hoffman - but intellectually I know I am one of the voices of the annoying elders. And now it seems that the world my parents had was somehow "nicer" than the one we have now.
It seems so NASTY then, you know, Mrs. Robinson and all... kinda dirty and yucky. But if we were all free love and choices then it had to be okay. Now it has gone to the extreme that every couple of years some junior high or high school (female) teacher seduces a student. Dustin Hoffman was just out of college (turned 21 in the movie) -- fully adult, (1967 adults were not 18, they were 21), but the age difference and she was married ----- made this just strange. Now every 50 years (single mostly) woman seems to be a "cougar" and after some young man. And still, they are screaming equality in some way.
Just one other facet of the Graduate ---
The other one is that scene when the friend of the parents says "One word --- plastics" showed me something. That advice was at least a decade late. The friend was seeing the tail end of the bell curve for the growth (big bucks) in plastics. If he wanted to give the kid advice that would have paid off big he should have said -- "printed circuit board" or "video game" or "personal computer" ---- or even "insulation".
Which made me think of taking my grandson aside a few months ago and saying (practically), "one word -- green" -- since he will graduate from high school next year, and would be five years away from a degree (at least) - he would be on the falling edge of this phenomenon "green" just as the 'plastic' advice was!
1970 -- California
Our first child, Paul, was born. We had no medical insurance -- I had to quit my office job (they didn't want a pregnant woman around, so I was asked to quit). Ron had a better-than-average job than people his age job in Printed Circuitry Design. My prenatal care and delivery were done by a very good OBGYN and I was delivered of my child in a brand new, state-of-the-art, hospital. My obstetrician gave us a bill and the hospital gave us a bill and we made payments on our child (no interest) for years. I don't remember how many years - but I do remember that I thought it was funny that our second child (born 1973) was paid off (we had insurance) before our first. You would never guess in a million years how much it cost of having our first child.... $300 for the OBGYN and $300 for the hospital.
Don't go thinking that reflects the cost of living change --- (it does, some) -- no I think it reflects the cost of malpractice lawsuits more than anything.
Our doctor was our friend and partner in the birth -- somewhere they became the plaintiff.
This leads to my next thought......
In 1975 our youngest child choked on a carrot -- it was inhaled into his lung. He immediately started turning blue. This was a life-changing moment in my life and one that I relive in nightmares still. I told my four-year-old son to go to the neighbor's house, (and until now, never gave him another thought), through the baby into the front seat of the car. I jumped in and started driving. If I had been thinking, there were two hospitals fairly close to our home... but by instinct, I jumped onto the freeway and started for the hospital where my kids had been born. I glanced at my baby and every time he was prone he stopped breathing -- so I pulled him on my lap - facing me - and DROVE -- honking my horn for anyone to just get the hell out of my way. I drove down the shoulder - I cut in and out -- and can remember thinking that if a cop tried to stop me, he would have to hear my explanation when we were at the hospital, but I was not stopping. Time flew by, I pulled into the hospital -- I grabbed my baby -- I ran in and some officious admissions lady started in -- "Do You Have Insurance?" "Name" "We have to fill these forms"---- blah blah -- I was standing there holding a baby that was turning blue!
Suddenly, this amazing man (I am sure I remember he had a halo) - grabbed my baby from me and shouted at the lady -- "Why the f**k do you think we have malpractice insurance?" and ran to the operating room. With me on his heels. Just that quick.
By luck, I was at the hospital where all the other pediatric surgeons were gathered to be taught to use orthoscopic equipment that day! So, my baby (the guinea pig), had the best pediatric surgeons in the Bay Area right there. If we had shown up at either other hospitals they would have either called for one of these or someone would have used the old-fashioned method of cutting him open to remove the carrot. As it was a little camera and a claw went down his throat and into his lungs, grabbed this thing and he was alive! He was admitted to the hospital overnight because of fear of pneumonia - but he was fine.
Today - if I was a young mother, would I hesitate and wonder "do I call the advise nurse?" - "do I have to call an ambulance?" "will I be able to pay for this?" -- "will the cops shoot me if I rush down the road?" --- or even "will I get it trouble for not putting my baby in a car seat?"
Wrongful death.... 1970 to 2009 and beyond.
So, that bell probably can't be unrung. But I can see now how tort reform would affect us all. When I worked at the insurance company prior to my first child's birth I was in the department that handled litigation -- including wrongful death. I was very impressed that people had worked out the value of a life - and the insurance companies could argue that x person, with such and such an education, could have achieved y in his lifetime, so pay z. How simple it was on those actuary charts.
Somewhere in the next two decades through judges went stupid though. Allowing lawyers and juries to decide the worth of people at million of dollars. Don't get me wrong if someone wrongly killed one of my sons, husband or father ---- I would scream that they needed to pay me MILLIONS. And I would hurt like mad to find the lawyer who finds me "justice". But a good judge would put a stop to that and tell the jury justice can not be counted in dollars, -- (well maybe in OJ Simpson's case), that actual damages must be paid and if there is malfeasance then it will be cured criminally -- negligence will get some additional nominal amount for suffering.
So food for thought - the amount paid out for malpractice in 2007 was about $47 million in Washington State alone. Each outrageous claim makes it more likely that some doctors will stop the delivery of babies - some community hospitals can not afford to deliver babies. Tort reform legislation has probably passed its moment -- but something must change.
Let's say we cut the payouts in half by averaging the price we pay for an Iraqi civilian's death by the amount we pay for one of ours. If we get $4 Million on average each and they get $2,500 each -- start by giving no more than $2 Million each here.