Re: CHAT: conlangs and mental illness

From Http://Members.Aol.Com/Lassailly/Tunuframe.Html wrote:

> Come on, Ed. I don't know about much the US welfare system, but I'm sure
> there must be a kind of social care for mentally disabled people like we have
> in EU states.
The first thing to remember is that the U.S. is in some ways a
Third World country.  Social services are very weak by European
standards, especially in medical matters:  you basically get
little or nothing unless you are absolutely destitute, and then
the care is decidedly second-class.  Mental illnesses are massively
discriminated against, and going to a state mental hospital is
almost the equivalent of going to prison: to be avoided at all
costs.

I think this results from the unwillingness on the part of powerful
Americans to perceive less powerful, or powerless, Americans as
fellow-countrymen.

--
John Cowan      http://www.ccil.org/~cowan              cowan@ccil.org
        You tollerday donsk?  N.  You tolkatiff scowegian?  Nn.
        You spigotty anglease?  Nnn.  You phonio saxo?  Nnnn.
                Clear all so!  'Tis a Jute.... (Finnegans Wake 16.5)