The chicken jokes are hurting my feelings.

[SmileyRose]

I am a barterer.

I come from a family full of Appalachians. We are a family of liberals, conservatives, Jr high drop outs and PhD's. A lot of us are dirt poor in spite of the fact we work our asses off, mostly so someone else can stay rich and send their kids to some New England prep school.

I am one of the lucky ones in my family that managed to get a little college under my belt and live most of my life in a metropolitan area. I live my life paying for nearly everything with either a swipe of the card or an online payment. I don't even get a pay stub anymore - these are now online. I drive to work (or rather I stop and start every 10 feet for 75 minutes each way in the 8 lanes of freeway between my house and my job) I leave home before daylight and get home most days after dark. I can't tell you the last time I got to just enjoy the sunset.

By contrast, my uneducated hillbilly backwoods half toothless relatives back in the hills see nearly every sunset. And I can promise you, come fall, if one of them is chicken rich and cash poor, they'll have no trouble finding someone to come help fix the pump on the well in exchange for chickens.

My counterparts in Kentucky and Tennessee and West Virginia almost universally recycle, reuse and repurpose. They almost universally eat locally grown or caught. There is a lot of bartering going on with my family and in their communities.

Of course the woman who said "trade chickens for medical care" is a fucking idiot. And the punches at her are well deserved. It never was practical to barter for something like medical care beyond the confines of a very small town out in the middle of east nowhere. Not to mention the fact it's a compete mystery on what on earth she thought that could be as a slam against the Healthcare reform laws.

All this said, it pains me greatly to see bartering held up as a joke. People do what it takes to survive wherever they live. I trade my time and frustration and a few talents in exchange for a monetary notation next to my account number in my bank's computers. Others trade their services directly for food. There is nothing wrong with trading sewing and mending skills for fix the washing machine skills - or trading chickens for shoes that don't fit your kids anymore and do fit mine.

Thank you for reading my post.

[Book Lover]

1. Thank you for writing your post (nm)

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

2. There's nothing wrong with bartering. There are circumstances where it works.

Unfortunately, bartering as a *substitute* for health care reform, as that moron in Nevada suggested, is not one of those circumstances. There are probably a few country doctors still left who'd take a chicken or a sack of potatoes in exchange for an office visit. But nobody's going to perform open heart surgery on you if you pay them in chickens.

[madinmaryland]

6. +1

[tridim]

7. Yea, barter is fine if the items are of equal value.

This thing is just flat out funny. Sorry if it hurts your feelings, it shouldn't.

[BrklynLiberal]

3. It is not the concept of bartering that is being ridiculed. It is that moran

lady who was able to say with a straight face that we could all barter for our medical care.

There are actually many groups who do barter for things today....it was just suggesting it as an alternative to
health care reform was a really stupid thing for that moran to do.

http://www.imsbarter.com/?gclid=CPLK47Him6ECFRlN5QodCizgwQ

http://www.thingheap.com/?gclid=CJOR0svim6ECFciA5QodlRoQyA

http://www.barterquest.com/?gclid=CPymk93im6ECFZdL5QodFFROww

http://www.bartergroup.com/

http://www.premierbarter.com/

http://www.grassrootsnetworking.com/barter-groups.htm

http://www.swaptree.com/WebFrmLoginRegistration.aspx?mode=join&PromotionCode=GOOG_3558518318_bartering&gclid=CMGInZjjm6ECFYd-5QodfnKlzg

http://www.bartergroup.com/how-it-works.asp

and there are lots, lots more.

[MrMickeysMom]

4. Hey SmileyRose, I got an idea...

Let Sue Lowden advocate paying the doctor in Limbaugh's.... That way, you get plenty of drugs in the exchange, too!

[BlooInBloo]

5. We're not laughing at this-or-that guy working out what he can on his own...

We're laughing at the asinine notion that a national system be run in such a manner.

[jody]

8. What a wonderful way to end the day, finding a kindred spirit. I also come from such a family with

distant relatives who signed our Constitution, founded this great nation, still earn their daily bread by the sweat of their brow, and serve time in famous prisons named for my relatives.

We can find ways to hate and prevent progress toward a better future.

IMO one way that transcends religion and irreligion is to follow two simple rules:

1. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

2. Do not unto others what you would not have them do unto you.

:hi:

[Jennicut]

9. The fact is, bartering was useful and served a great purpose for years.

In some areas, even in the U.S. as you said, it is a good thing and is still going on. But in most of the country, you would not be able to find doctors not willing to take cold hard cash or an insurance card and a copay. I wish I could barter for my meds as a diabetic. The CVS pharmacy would laugh at me. I wish it would work that way as I have doctor's visits and bloodwork every 3 months.

I am from New England too, Connecticut. Prep schools here suck and it is where the rich send their kids when they want nothing to do with them. Many friends I grew up with went to Choate or some other snooty school and hated it.

[SmileyRose]

15. I've heard that about prep schools

Years ago, the ex-wife of someone who grew up in a prep school told me the family she married into was FAR more dysfunctional than anything we've ever seen on "Cops".

[abelenkpe]

10. Bartering is cool.

Recycling and eating locally even cooler.

The notion that everyone bartering with the doctor directly will bring the cost of health care down is absurd. Please don't take it personally.

[aikoaiko]

11. The APA code of ethics even allows barter for psychological services.

bartering rocks.

[Fumesucker]

23. I thought it was nuts you had to barter for psych services? n/t

[Mira]

12. I'm glad you wrote this, and I'm glad you fully see why the woman is considered

totally nuts.
I barter all the time. I have a small business, and I make the decisions, and when someone needs my services I even barter on the come.
As a result of a deal I made today, my next appliance repair, or my next electrical labor job will be "free".
He could not afford what I had designed for him, and as a result I will get paid what he can afford, and take the rest in trade.

I would have lost all of the job, and he would have had nothing.
It works out to everyone's satisfaction almost all the time, if you are careful, and observe a few rules of fairness.

I know what you mean, and I know you feel better for having written the post.

Recommended

[lonestarnot]

13. I love chickens.

:( I'm sorry your feelings have been hurt. :hug:

[TheOther95Percent]

14. I spent a fair amount of my misspent youth in Ithaca, NY

and I know well the benefits of bartering. I think that most people are poking fun at the very well-off political candidate who suggested bartering as a means to get needed health care. I view her suggestion not as support of bartering; but a modern version of the "Let them eat cake." response.

There are some situations that lend themselves to trading goods and services; but I don't believe health care is one of them.

[AnArmyVeteran]

16. Thanks for your well written and sincere post... (well done)

So how many chickens would you take to tune up my car?

[SmileyRose]

19. If I tuned up your car

it would be permanently unfixable ever again. I'd have to pay you enough chickens to fly you to work.

:+

[SPedigrees]

26. ROTFL nt

[AnArmyVeteran]

40. LOLOLOLOL

[Naturalist111]

17. Everything is a barter. Time for money. This for that. The humor

however, is in Doctors taking chickens for payment. Nothing else.

[SoCalDem]

18. EVERYONE "barters"..

Every time you do a favor for someone, and they return the favor, you have bartered.

The issue here is that a one-on-one system of service/goods delivery is being suggested as a NATIONAL solution to a health care system nightmare.


And bartering requires TWO willing participants in every deal.. What if the oncologist refuses to barter, does one spend months/years looking for one who might?




99.999999999999% of DU posters do NOT know anyone else here personally, and have NO interest in being "hurtful" to any individual who reads something written, and sees "themselves".

[Mari333]

20. I barter with my friends, too

I have a young man who digs up my garden and I give him lunch. my other friend and I trade rides.

bartering works.

but the Las Vegas nutjob cannot equate that with paying for health care and using chickens for a 120,000.00 heart bypass.

she has watched wayyyy too many movies about old doc smith in 1898.


and shes so wealthy I doubt she wipes her own ass.

[vixengrl]

21. People in my family have worked for food.

They've worked for beer, too. We trade stuff intra-family all the time, and sometimes, we'll catch a discount on services from others because of services or stuff we can provide (I have a little urban farm). And in terms of micro-economy, I love it. It's informal, and both parties feel satisfied that they got good value out of the exchange. I don't think the problem is "barter" as a non-monetary exchange, just, as you point out, the impracticality of it for most people.

I think the symbol of the chicken is what might rub as "anti-rural", and that's a shame. It's not meant to be a diss against rural people or even poor people, but more like a symbol of the absurdity of paying in chickens or jams or buckets of figs to a Dr's office where they will need to pay their light bill or rent (as Rachel Maddow pointed out) in hard cash.

On the whole, I wish I could find more barter opportunities, like unhauling my old books for clothes at the thrift store and stuff. One thing in favor of bartering is it's not wasteful, it's actually very practical. I think we've lost touch with that kind of economy, which is why I appreciate movements like freeganism.

And I think the criticism of Lowden's barter nonsense is wholly valid--there is no way it would bring down costs, because the doctor's business still needs money to operate. It's just emblematic of the unseriousness of her suggestion. The health care debate went on how long--and she gives us chickens?

[WorseBeforeBetter]

22. C'mon, no one is holding up the system of bartering as a joke.

What I am holding up as a joke is an idiotic Republican politician who thinks I'll be able to barter away the cost of a $2,500 MRI.

[seabeyond]

24. don't take it personally. my husband is a computer tech. he will work on peoples computers

and get all kinds of things in exchange. last week he got a case of special beer, clueless... for 'fixing" an old mans computer. the guy was clicking on an attachment and wouldn't open. he didnt know how to double click. he would click.................click. instead of clickclick.

no one is laughing at barter. everyone is laughing at the suggestion bartering for medical care because as you rightly say, she is a fucking idiot.

[Froward69]

25. Trading Chickens with a Doc is fine... IF

Thats what he will accept for payment. The real Joke (as i see it) is the chick who wants to barter in health care (like the olden days) works for Casinos... do you think Las Vegas Casinos will accept Livestock as payment? Certainly not for a suite or any real loss they won't.

Now I did not get to see the sunset tonight because of the rain. I will wait until tomorrow. (they happen every day) I Have NEVER been anywhere where I could not go see a sunset. Including NYC.

Above the arctic circle in winter, is another story.

[nolabear]

27. Barter is wonderful. Money is just symbolic barter, after all.

And I come from pretty humble folks too. But I PROMISE you, if I take chickens to the doctor, I'm going to have a hard time swapping them for a colonoscopy.

[SPedigrees]

28. Back in the 60s, bartering was popular amongst us hippies.

I once received a pair of really cool homemade sandals from an artisan as a barter. They were incredibly well made and held up for years. Now I wish I'd saved them as momentos of that era.

Glad to know that the barter system is alive and well in the southern Appalachians. Here in the northern section of those same mountains, sad to say, no one trades.

At present I am only thankful that this idiot woman chose to barter her would-be Senate career for a chicken joke. It is appalling that before the barter she was a serious threat to Senator Harry reid.

[Merlot]

29. I don't think bartering is what the joke is about

It's about a rich, out of touch republicon suggesting that people who don't have money don't deserve medical treatment.

IMHO.

[SemiCharmedQuark]

30. How many chickens are required for a 250 thousand dollar medical bill?

That's how much the bill came to for my cousin's birth. That is what people are making fun of, not the system of bartering itself.

[KittyWampus]

31. It isn't Bartering being held up as a joke. It's idiot Republicans who want us all on survival level

[underseasurveyor]

33. And there it is

Bingo:thumbsup:

And any one of us that's a barterer, past or present, sees this. No doubt cheap labor repubilicans wish they could pay us in chickens.

[ProSense]

32. "Of course the woman who said "trade chickens for medical care" is a fucking idiot."

The chicken jokes shouldn't hurt your feelings and they're very appropriate. Sue Lowden is a an idiot.

It's not bartering that is being held up to ridicule. It's her ludicrous suggestion.

[iris27]

34. Barter is fantastic in situations where it's practical.

I think most people here are making fun of the suggestion that it'd work to pay a multi-hundred-dollar bill for a medical office that employs doctors, a nurse or two, a receptionist, a billing secretary, and has to pay lab staff to run tests and cleaning staff to take the trash out and vacuum the carpet.

There may have been a moron or two here making classist jokes about the supposed "type" of people who barter (though really anyone with a local community of family and friends barters...you watch the kids and I'll mow your lawn). But I haven't seen any DUers doing that myself.

[TwilightGardener]

35. Oh for God's sake. Someone WOULD have to take offense, or it wouldn't be DU.

In-fucking-sane, to take this personally, and think we're making fun of your "simple folk" ways. Jeezus. Get over it. Unrec.

[99 Percent Sure]

36. . . . and then there's the fact that there's nothing better

than a yardbird, be it fricassed, fried, roasted, Morrocconed, crispy-skinned, or whatever.

And we ain't even gonna go into the exquisiteness that is yardbird wings, although I'm partial to the lemon pepper ones.Also, the feces is the best plant and lawn fertilizer.

Back in Alabama, my maternal grandmother used to fertilize her potted plants with yardbird excrement. For over half of my 55 years, the family joke about me was that, as a toddler, they'd often find me eating soil mixed with chicken feces fertilizer from house and porch plants when visiting M'Dear's house. I also had several family members who worked at the chicken house preparing live birds for consumers' tables.

Yep, I enjoy the yardbird from the rooter to the tooter, and the feet don't fail me either.

I feel your pain, SmileyRose. I. feel. your. pain. Me and the yardbird have a long, storied, familial history, and I'm offended that even one drumstick would be wasted in parody on a repug.

[enki23]

37. oh, for chrissake...

i misspent too much of my youth shoveling shit out of chicken barns. therefore, i'm just saddened by all this making fun of chickens.

i am deeply concerned about this.

[LoZoccolo]

38. Cool story, bro. n/t

[earth mom]

39. I'd say that this country is fast heading for a bartering system-who the hell has any money?

As for bartering for health care, now that is a total joke.

But what do we all expect from politicians who have no financial worries personally and have done nothing to change * & Cos horrific policies? :grr: