You're talking to a human, but they behave like a broken robot.
Also there's the 30 minutes waiting music that repeats every 1 minute a cheerful recording of someone saying "your call is important to us". It's obvious that it isn't, or else they'd hire more people so that they can pick up the phone more quickly.
Even these manage to be dehumanizing to the employees some times. W*lgreen's has one that interrupts every minute to say "our staff is busy answering other calls", and the singular "our staff is" annoys me every time, like they view the front-line humans as just a possession to be exploited for every possible cent. Human Resources, if you will.
Everyone aspires to make their customer facing business like McDonalds because it’s cheaper to measure outputs from a broken system than to effectively lead humans.
Try to get a fucking job in Europe. No one is hiring because you're a tax burden. "But you're protected". Just not for the first 6 months. Or anytime they decide to fire you for bullshit reasons and you get told to move the fuck out of your decent apartment and drain your bank accounts if you want any benefits.
Friends? Heh.
Shows? Overpriced and garbage.
I live in the Netherlands, and this is the most frustrating thing about the healthcare system. I’ve had innumerable instances where the local GP recommends Paracetamol and my family doctor actually diagnoses the real problem.
It’s a running joke in this country: https://amsterdamshallowman.com/2019/07/dutch-healthcare-par...
I already take the placebo effect directly; if I'm going the trouble of dealing with your travesty of a medical system, it's because that wasn't sufficient.
I’m also curious why you think medicine is placebo theater. Surely, you aren’t invalidating the concept of modern healthcare?
However I see it falling apart everywhere day after day with not any political will to stop this (and i can even feel the will to let it fall voluntarily).
I know it’s still top notch compared to most of the world. But I’m so sad to see that governments of the last decades just didn’t care about fixing the issues while they were still manageable.
You are calling 'dipshits' to people that worked their asses to earn the right go be there. Six years of University, and then passing their Medical Internship Residency exams that typically takes another two or three to prepare, and then working other four years doing an internship, and then a few years more until earning a permanent place in another exam.
Any physician working in public healthcare in Europe is extremely qualified for the job.
American healthcare is similar, except I have to pay $35 bucks up front just to talk to anyone, and can expect a couple hundred dollar bill to show up later if they actually do anything.
Live in France, _cannot confirm_.
Live in America, _cannot confirm_ your little anecdote about all Americans assuming the worst.
It's funny how Quail's front page seems to be filled with glowing reviews from cynical aggressive Americans but none from the cheery French. Weird.
While you wait for your appointment, research your condition using any of the free, high quality medical knowledge bases on the web, and/or connect with a community of other internet users with similar afflictions to get advice/perspective.
> Looking for an entry-level job?
Learn to code and become an in-demand knowledge worker. In the mean time, perhaps monetize your existing skills and assets by becoming an AirBnB host or Uber driver or delivery driver.
> Want to spend time with friends?
Use a widely available asynchronous messaging service to organize an outing, perhaps using a money-transfer app so that one person can take care of booking etc. If you can't meet in person, maybe you can have a video conference on one of the various free platforms, or just have an extended group chat with your friends.
> Want to go to a show?
Browse the web for a vast selection of shows you would never hear about otherwise.
Not that these points negate your complaints, but I think you paint an unnecessarily miserable picture. I think that in itself is one of the big cultural problems of America and elsewhere.
And now not only your running nose is still there, but you are also very anguished and cannot sleep well, just because it might be the sign that you have a cancer and will die alone in terrible suffering in a few months while ruining your family with debts.
Everyone can fill in their pet theory here, but mine is that so much of being American these days is disempowering. Corporations have so much power that not only do they not care about us, but we can't even avoid using them.
Get sick? Good luck fighting your giant health insurance provider or hospital conglomeration.
Looking for an entry-level job? Navigate a Kafka-esque application system only to (if you're lucky) work for a miserable low-level manager who also has no power and transfers that anger onto you.
Want to spend time with friends? Their preferred communication medium is now one of a couple of huge social media companies with horrific privacy policies and a history of emotionally damaging its users.
Want to go to a show? Have fun buying overpriced tickets from one of the two or three ticket monopolies and then pay an exhorbitant, insulting "convenience" fee.
So everyday, in many of our basic daily rituals, we are reminded of how little agency we have in our own lives and how much we both depend on and are subject to the whims of billionaires (who, meanwhile, are busy destroying the Earth).