We are conditioned to be productive, consume, be productive, and consume. It's a never-ending cycle.
It is a bad cycle? Not necessarily. We have to work for our food, whether we grow it ourselves, forage and hunt for it, or work for money with which to buy it. Whatever system we rule our lands with must focus on the daily need to eat food.
So what happens when a person becomes too sick to work for their food? Well... this is a scary question, and perhaps one of entitlement.
In the far past there were 2 options:
1. These people would simply just die. Survival of the fittest.
2. Their families would keep them safe and feed them as long as possible, assuming they had families who could afford to. This very much depended on class and circumstances. If the family were peasants, vs if the family were nobility.
Today, we pretend to have a more humane approach to chronic illness:
The government offers assistance, which all of the working class pays for through taxes (not by their choice.) This assistance includes a monthly monetary stipend, discount on medical care though basic insurance, and discounts or stipends on food. The trouble is, the assistance isn't enough. If they're single and have to live alone, best case scenario, people will qualify for section 8 government assisted housing. Have you seen those properties? They're often apartments in really poor condition full of black mold, which will keep people very sick.
If you fail to benefit from this government assistance (not because you don't deserve it, but because you fell through the cracks in the system), you're forced to rely on your family to feed you or you're forced to work for money despite bad health.
The problem with family is that they're not always supportive, and they often issue conditions on their help. I've read so many horror stories from people desperate for help who try to rely on family support, but end up more stressed and burdened than if they were homeless. This is usually because families don't have enough money to support the sick person, or because the families are full of skeptics who don't believe it's possible to be so sick.
The problem with trying to work for enough money to support yourself during illness is that it's usually impossible. No, not just difficult. Actually impossible. The reason for this is that it's hard to get hired, and then it's hard to keep a job because sick people are unreliable and unable to advance. Another problem is that most sick people are unable to get hired for positions that pay well enough to even afford rent. They might have degrees or skills, but be unable to function well enough to use their skills. So they're forced to look for easier work that pays less. Right now it's hard enough for fully healthy and capable adults to earn enough money to afford life - it's that much harder for sick people.
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| The Awkward Yeti |
We need to be able to find hope in our doctors and scientists. We want to be healed. The trouble is, these chronic illnesses aren't treatable by doctors. At best doctors know how to manage symptoms with medications, or do surgery to reduce the source of the problem. If you're someone that is able to work full-time because of medication, you're lucky. 
Some of us find help from alternative medicine because it teaches us lifestyle choices that prevent causes of illnesses from continuing to keep us sick. But it often just gives us quality of life while living with the illness, and doesn't always heal us enough to be able to work full-time again. This is fantastic! But many illnesses are too complicated even for these natural methods. It's also a very expensive method just to improve quality of life, not necessarily recover enough to live life fully.
So there's really no good solution here. And that's why so many people with chronic illnesses give up and commit suicide. If our society doesn't allow for survival of the fittest to play out naturally, then people will take matters into their own hands and kill themselves. Is this humane?
I do see a solution to all these problems, but it requires a paradigm shift in society. The solution is in building stronger, happier, and better supported families. We've built a society in which people are individuals, and each person must earn enough money to support their own needs. We really need to move away from this society of individualism, and instead build a society in which families can thrive. This might look like being able to live on a single-income again. It might look like keeping houses in the family, and multiple generations living together. It might look like moving away from big cities and forming smaller self-sustaining communities again. It might look like living with less luxury - we stop living like entitled nobles and start living like peasants again.
The root of the problem is that managing a chronic illness is always a team effort, never an individual's burden. Society needs to have a structure that allows for people having hard times. We need safeguards against chronic illness and homelessness. A society that thrives on a family structure means everyone should have a family to rely on. People will always fall through the cracks, and there should always be assistance available for those people. But if families could afford to take care sick loved ones without going bankrupt, we'd have a MUCH stronger society with much less stress.
Until we build that society... we have to take our responsibility to each other very seriously. We need to make choices that don't cause other people to get sick. We need to learn to love each other again. Every person has value. Every person deserves to live. It can be as simple as choosing to stop smoking in public. Choosing to stop using synthetic fragrances. Choose to avoid plastic as much as possible. Choose to reduce stress on others when possible. Choose peace over conflict when possible. Choose understanding over being right. Choose to stop feeding sugar to each other. Choose to stop using unhealthy oils in foods. Choose to cook at home more. Choose to eat dinner together. Choose to create more opportunities to rest and relax. Choose to find time to worship and foster faith together. Choose to be a community. Choose to care about each other.
Am I being idealistic? Well, someone needs to be.. because practical solutions haven't been working.
Afterall... is the fact that people with chronic illnesses struggle to live in this society their own fault for getting sick in the first place, or is it a society problem that we can't offer them a place in the world?
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