Bring a Chicken to the Doctor

I stole this video from Pandagon which has an excellent discussion up about the dangers of viewing "the olden days" as Rep. Sue Lowden phrases them through rose-colored glasses. It is true that in say 1880, bartering with a doctor was common practice, but the skills, the medicine and the training of said doctor was usually questionable at best and to except physicians, nurses, hospitals, MRI machine companies and similar to accept a chicken in lieu of cash payments is ludicrious in the MARKET ECONOMY REPUBLICANS HOLD SO DEAR! Her nostalgia is not good public policy, nor does it really speak honestly about "the olden days" a phrase that I find laughable because it seems to encompass Pre-Antiquity through the 1950's as one large swatch of "better times" for people like Lowden. Interestingly, one item that was dug up on this woman was that while she was VP of your family's casino, the casino was fined $200,000 for labor violations that included forcing full-time employees to sign waivers for benefits and denying health insurance to eligible employees. I guess she takes her bartering seriously and wants her employees to start the trend because forefend she be forced to obey labor laws!