DJ Calvert told BBC News NI: "I've been let down - and I'm not the only one."

It was proof that Northern Ireland's health and social care system had "crashed", said the 49-year-old.

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[–] 112 points 2 years ago* (54 children)

Billionaires exist and this poor man can't get a goddamn health care worker.

At all levels of government we're (worldwide) making due with less while these fucking parasites grow.

Shit is going to get ugly in the next few decades...

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  • [–] 40 points 2 years ago* (15 children)

    Eat the rich, problem solves itself.

    I'll argue that you only need to eat five rich. The first two will be shocking, the next two will be surprising that they were eaten despite all the security measures, the fifth being eaten is the reminder that the rich will be eaten.

    You've taken care of like, 50% of the billionaires parasite issue with those 5, the remaining few will suddenly decide that social welfare programs are a good idea and donate so much that they are no longer billionaires.

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  • [–] 11 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    Eat the rich and more rich pop up. It takes more than just "let's get rid of who we think the sole problem is and everything will turn out fine". The rich didn't just appear from a vacuum, they've accumulated power and wealth for centuries, if not millennia. "Eating the rich" would require vastly more fundamental changes than just grabbing goods from the nearest billionaire and tossing at "the poors".

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  • [–] 27 points 2 years ago (36 children)

    Not everywhere...

    The real (inflation-adjusted) incomes of the poorest half of the Chinese population increased by more than four hundred percent from 1978 to 2015, while real incomes of the poorest half of the US population actually declined during the same time period. https://www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w23119/w23119.pdf

    From 1978 to 2000, the number of people in China living on under $1/day fell by 300 million, reversing a global trend of rising poverty that had lasted half a century (i.e. if China were excluded, the world's total poverty population would have risen) https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/China%E2%80%99s-Economic-Growth-and-Poverty-Reduction-Angang-Linlin/c883fc7496aa1b920b05dc2546b880f54b9c77a4

    From 2010 to 2019 (the most recent period for which uninterrupted data is available), the income of the poorest 20% in China increased even as a share of total income. https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SI.DST.FRST.20?end=2019&locations=CN&start=2008

    By the end of 2020, extreme poverty, defined as living on under a threshold of around $2 per day, had been eliminated in China. According to the World Bank, the Chinese government had spent $700 billion on poverty alleviation since 2014. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/31/world/asia/china-poverty-xi-jinping.html

    https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2022/04/01/lifting-800-million-people-out-of-poverty-new-report-looks-at-lessons-from-china-s-experience

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  • [–] 53 points 2 years ago (6 children)

    I read the headline thinking 'so what else is new' and then realized they weren't talking about the US. Here it wouldn't be news at all.

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  • [–] [S] 26 points 2 years ago (5 children)

    Over the past while, our government has essentially turned our welfare system into a parody of the US's. This guy makes the most amazing Lego sculptures, and it's so fucking sad he's going through this.

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  • [+] 12 points 2 years ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)
  • [–] 4 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    They do, the problem is the ones in power are all in on it.

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  • [+] 7 points 2 years ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 child)
  • Yep.

    I had a construction worker try to explain to me how Elon Musk is a genius who makes it possible for me to do my job (I work in the Space Industry, NOT for SpaceX) and I should be grateful he's creating those opportunities for me instead of hating on him. He got really mad about it when I didn't agree.

    He got even angrier when I asked him why someone like him, on the lowest rung of the labor ladder, was simping like that. He had no answer though.

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  • [–] 22 points 2 years ago (5 children)

    The sad thing is in the US its extremely likely the fellow would have already been dead after years living on the streets with a cardboard sign.

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    [–] [B] 9 points 2 years ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:


    A man born without hands or legs has been told he will soon no longer get a daily visit from a care worker to help him shower and get dressed.

    It added that it understood "the worry it is causing", and would "seek an alternative provider" that would "support him to continue living independently in his own home".

    His care is provided by Connected Health but that is due to end on 1 December, with the company telling BBC News NI that it was "increasingly stretched in ever more demanding circumstances".

    Mr Calvert's friend Vicky has been making additional visits to help four days a week but now that looks to be the only assistance he will get.

    Mr Calvert's mother, Heather, said she "just couldn't believe it" when she heard that her son was losing his care package.

    She told Evening Extra that over the past seven months the situation surrounding DJ's care has been "a rollercoaster".


    The original article contains 776 words, the summary contains 158 words. Saved 80%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

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  • [+] 5 points 2 years ago* (last edited 1 year ago)
    [+] 1 point 2 years ago
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