The UK government said its cuts won't starve the poor because "emergency funds" are available, but they are filtered through a system that makes it hard for poor people to get those funds, if they even think of asking.

They seem to be part of the UK right-wing government's policy of shafting the poor, pretending not to be shafting the poor, but demonizing the poor.

Charging UK patients for crutches is the wedge being used to abolish gratis medical care in the UK.

The UK government has been striving for years to destroy the National Health service by underfunding it, denying all the while that that is its goal. The result would be a lousy US-style medical system in which the poor can't afford medical care.

Meanwhile, if they want to save money on crutches, they could do various things to encourage patients to return them for reuse.

I tried to hand a wrist brace back to MIT medical after I no longer needed it, and MIT medical refused to take it, or even tell me where to find anyone that would take it. Apparently in the US all medical organizations are scared they will be sued if a medical appliance transfers some sort of pest from one patient to another. Someone there suggested I give it to Good Will, but Good Will doesn't accept wrist braces.

This makes no sense, except in terms of absurd litigation. A crutch or wrist brace is no more likely to transfer any sort of infection than a dress or shirt that Good Will would handle.

It would be easy enough to adopt a regulation saying that clinics will not be liable for infections supposedly transferred by crutches and wrist braces provided they follow certain specified sterilization procedures. But no one in the US cares about this.

The NSA is not the only threat to privacy in the US. Local thug departments are installing technology that can track all cars around the city.

Landlord companies that bought housing in New York City are going to vicious lengths, even sabotage, to make tenants move out so they can raise rents.

Other tenants are shafted because the landlords are being foreclosed on.

The convenience and cheapness of streaming services and corporate remote storage may be impossible to resist, if you are spineless and don't mind being antisocial.

The spineless author made himself susceptible to bad judgment by adopting shallow economic values that show up in the concept of "consuming services".