I went through a time recently where we didn't have medical insurance, and my husband just had a contract job. We were not making enough to keep up with the cost of where we lived really, because he saw himself as being less than he was and thought he needed the experience. Well, yeah initiation is certainly an experience, it shattered all my illusions of how I though the “real world” was.
I would take my child, (or my pet, my husband or myself) to the doctor if I thought it would be more likely to heal than harm, but in some cases, I think it would defiantly create more issues than it would solve. I know some people have the luxury of being taken care of, but you have to think of all those children in poor countries who don't get basic medial care who probably die of diseases like that all the time.
America (where I live) becomes more like that every day, because we really don't have much for our lower classes to do anymore (like the old factory jobs that went overseas to china), except go over and fight the war in Iraq, and you can only do that if you are healthy. Sure they have service sector jobs, but those don't really pay the standard of living people used to here. I hear my husband bitch day in and day out about this, because I think he misses the security of the world his parents grew up in, but those days are no longer here, and we have to accept that if we want a better life.
