Yesterday, during a coffee break, I ran into a secretary I had worked with before. As we caught up, I learned that she also works another job with Northwell Health. “Small world,” I thought. But before long, our conversation shifted to the state of healthcare, specifically, its excesses. We talked about how these massive health systems are always on a mission to expand. Then, we zoomed in on the ordinary employees, the nurses, the techs, the secretaries, the custodians, who seem perpetually unhappy. Everyone feels overworked and yet, underpaid, and or undervalued. Noticed I didn't include the managers, administrators and medical doctors.They belong to what Karl Marx called the managerial class in his seminal work, the Communist Manifesto.
So I asked the question: What is going on?
If hospitals claim they can’t afford to pay their workers livable wages, how are they financing their constant expansions? This year alone, all of Northwell Health is migrating its various electronic medical record (EMR) systems to EPIC, a system that already dominates the market yet continues to swallow up more and more hospitals nationwide. Epic is doing that too. This by the way is not unique to healthcare but across all industries.
Then she gave me a one-word answer: Greed.
I laughed and said, “Good answer.” Because in the name of greed, nobody is ever satisfied. Just like the grave, it is never full. Why is enough never enough for the greedy? Even EPIC, which dominates that market, is still growing
We laughed, but beneath the humor was a sobering truth: greed may be the symptom, but something deeper is at play.
The average person working two or three jobs isn’t necessarily complaining because their pay is unfair. In another time, in another place, that income might have been enough to live comfortably. But in today’s America, things are far from normal.
Inflation is out of control. People are losing their homes. The cost of living is skyrocketing. Winter is here, and for many, staying warm isn’t a given. These are serious, daily struggles. I was just talking to a young lady out there. She looked distressed, you could see it on her face like the dress she had on. The brief encounter I had with her revealed that she is losing her Indian roommate as their lease was up and she doesn't know what to do as she cannot afford one on her own. The trouble with being me is that when I learn of other people's problems, it instantly becomes mine . Now I'm burdened with just the thoughts of it. But that is to make the point.
And the coworker who shows up miserable at work every day? They might be drowning in these very issues. But the real question is: How many of us actually care? Let's be kind to each other at work and out there in the world.
Of course, when times get hard, people turn to the government. They place their hopes in political leaders, believing that the right person in office will fix everything. No politician has that power regardless of what we might be tempted to think.
Right now in America, those who voted for Kamala Harris, who lost to Trump, believe that if she had won, things would have been better. At least those working at USAID would have still been employed and everything would be business as usual. Meanwhile, Trump’s voters, who celebrated his victory since his inauguration, are beginning to see that their lives haven’t magically improved as they had wished. Some of them are already starting to criticize him for favoring the billionaire class, of which he belongs to, over the working class.
It doesn’t matter that he has been in office for less than a month. This cycle never changes. Politicians make promises, then step into office, and wake up to the harsh reality that the problems before them are far bigger than they imagined.
So is there an invisible force somewhere pulling the strings as many had asked? Running the system in a way that serves a hidden agenda? We may never know.
And no matter who I talk to at work, there is a shared sense of struggle, exhaustion, and disillusionment among everyday people.
That secretary told me our biggest problem is greed. But I believe it’s deeper than that. Our problem is spiritual. We are a people disconnected from what truly matters. I heard a priest recently said that this generation is the most sinful generation since the Biblical flood. Sad!
My recommendation? We need to do what the people of Nineveh did. When faced with destruction, they humbled themselves, repented, and sought God’s mercy.
"When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil ways, God relented from the disaster that He had said He would bring upon them, and He did not do it". -Jonah 3:10
If we, too, fall on our knees and seek the mercy of the Maker of this universe, perhaps we can begin to turn things around for us.
God bless you, and Happy Sunday.
I remain your friend,
Ronnie Law
