How does this happen?

Is it the idea of "personal responsibility" and "pull yourself up by the bootstraps" philosophy combined with lack of any actual support and/or education?

There has to be a better phrase or word to define the perverse sort of philosophy espoused by many in the Republican party about this sort of "personal responsibility".

It feels somewhat akin to the idea of privatize profits and socialize the losses. The social loss is definitely one that is pushed off onto the individual, but who's profiting? Is it really so expensive to fix this problem? Isn't the loss to society and public health akin to the Million Dollar Murray problem?

Wouldn't each individual's responsibility be better tied to the collective good as well as their own outcomes? How can the two be bound together to improve outcomes for everyone all around?

Adam Kucharski. (2021, March 24). This is an interesting perspective on Taiwan (& glad it mentions data/privacy), although I’d like to see more references to what local officials were actually saying about approach in real-time, rather than what UK-based researchers later say it was: Https://t.co/FDu0mQoISh 1/ [Tweet]. @AdamJKucharski. https://twitter.com/AdamJKucharski/status/1374638777814167555

Marc Lipsitch. (2021, July 20). At the risk of boiling down too much and certainly losing some detail, one way to summarize this wonderful thread is that when we think about vaccine effectiveness, we should think of 4 key variables: 1 which vaccine, 2 age of the person, 3 how long after vax, 4 vs what outcome. [Tweet]. @mlipsitch. https://twitter.com/mlipsitch/status/1417595538632060931

ReconfigBehSci [@SciBeh]. (2022, January 28). @ollysmithtravel @AllysonPollock that is a policy alternative one could consider- whether it’s more or less effective, more or less equitable, or even implementable in the current Austrian health care framework would need careful consideration.... None of that saves the argument in the initial tweet [Tweet]. Twitter. https://twitter.com/SciBeh/status/1487043954654818316

Singh, R. (2021, August 25). Delta Air Lines to add $200 monthly health insurance charge for unvaccinated staff. Reuters. https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/delta-add-200-monthly-health-insurance-charge-unvaccinated-staff-2021-08-25/

Poverty and thus lack of knowledge, lack of good nutrition, and lack of dental insurance are the cause of bad teeth in America. Apparently it's not drugs or sugar, though they surely don't help.

U.S. Census Bureau. (2021, February 4). Small Business Pulse Survey Shows Shift in Expectations from Spring to Winter. The United States Census Bureau. https://www.census.gov/library/stories/2021/01/small-business-pulse-survey-shows-shift-in-expectations-from-spring-to-winter.html?utm_campaign=20210126msacos1ccstors&utm_medium=email&utm_source=govdelivery

Quality-adjusted life year. (2021). In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Quality-adjusted_life_year&oldid=1009094786

Clay, K., Lewis, J. A., Severnini, E. R., & Wang, X. (2020). The Value of Health Insurance during a Crisis: Effects of Medicaid Implementation on Pandemic Influenza Mortality (Working Paper No. 27120; Working Paper Series). National Bureau of Economic Research. https://doi.org/10.3386/w27120

Newhouse, J. P. (2020). An Ounce of Prevention (Working Paper No. 27553; Working Paper Series). National Bureau of Economic Research. https://doi.org/10.3386/w27553