Dear Sir: A recent experience of value at both ends of the socio-economic scale invites their comparison. At the higher end, I visited a physician for a complete physical, recommended because of retirement. After I had waited 75 minutes (a couple my age had been awaiting theirs longer still), the physician saw me, asking, “How are you?” I could only reply, “After 75 minutes of waiting, how do you think I should be?” For gravitas and affability, I added, “Doctor to doctor.” The physician’s nurse had told me that the physician always runs late, that they all do. My physician had to hear the question again, so unaccustomed to hearing it, I guess. Why would that be? And with a constant metric from which to work for improvement, then, why have wait times everywhere remained scandalous? Not for absence of thought alone. At the lower end of the socio-economic scale, I talked with a homeless man who was collecting recyclables. Aside from the concerns normal to the homeless (one way we normalize homelessness as a concern is driving through it, rather than walking), the man was concerned about how all the trash affects Mother Nature. His words. I think that he is a candidate for payment beyond recyclables and spare loonies. His collecting reduces Terrace trash. Maybe a fee for service? Those who say he is what he collects are like physicians who have to be asked twice about keeping patients waiting for over an hour. Has to do with not only absence of thought but of necessary action. The absence represents what we value, and don’t. Work, perhaps, for new MLA Ellis Ross. Source
