Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown. Shakespeare’s line might apply to the top brass, but for most Americans another related line is more apt: Uneasy lies the tooth that wears a crown. In an irony that’s both twisted and pulled, one can find the most obvious signs of American decay by looking inside our mouths. While wealthy Americans spending billions on making teeth whiter and straighter, “millions of others rely on charity clinics and hospital emergency rooms to treat painful and neglected teeth. Unable to afford expensive root canals and crowns, many simply have them pulled. Nearly 1 in 5 Americans older than 65 do not have a single real tooth left.” Why would we expect them to just grin and bear it? From WaPo: The Painful Truth About Teeth.

+ “The problem, of course, with outsourcing our public services to philanthropic organizations is that it shifts agency from the government, which is accountable to the people, to the private sector, which is not.” From The New Republic: Have the Rich Become Super Citizens?