As we sat watching the endless garbage expensive advertising on American TV while waiting for something called the Olympics, we saw an allegedly non-profit Health Maintenance Organization, Kaiser Permanente, advertising itself as a promoter of the Olympics, while charging us $705 per month just to be a member in the 60-64 age group, plus $25 to see a doctor and $10 for each lab test. Meanwhile, the British celebrated their National Health Service in the Opening Ceremony history lesson, which was preceded by celebrating labor in the history of modern agriculture and the industrial revolution.

Advertising during the Olympics is extremely expensive so Kaiser must be making millions in profits. It is also not socialized medicine which by definition is paid for with tax dollars guaranteeing everyone free healthcare from cradle to grave.

This writer can remember back to the 1960 Olympics at Squaw Valley, California which was on TV. These lavish opening ceremonies did not start until the 1970s when the Olympics became a big business both for the military and private profit companies, and the military is a profit-maximization business as the greatest profits are in munitions and oil, with the military being the biggest user of oil and the biggest polluter. While I cannot remember all the opening ceremonies in the US either because I was not alive in 1904 and 1932 or simply do not remember the details for 1960, 1984, 1996 and 2002, celebrating labor and in particular celebrating labor's achievement, namely socialized medicine was certainly never on the American agenda.

And when the medals are counted, remember to divide the medals into the population of each given country. The US has 310 million people. Germany has 81 million people. On a per capita basis, Germany comes out far ahead of the US. It also has had socialized medicine since 1883, as does now all of Europe, Israel, Cuba, Canada, Japan, China, Australia, New Zealand, all because labor is stronger in those countries. China went from a life expectancy of age 35 in 1949, the year of the revolution, to 75 today, due to socialized medicine brought by the revolution.