Don’t Bury the Lede
If you want something funny, head to Comedy Central. If you’re looking for a crime show, browse the listings at HBO or Netflix. If you want a real tear jerker, try GoFundMe. The crowdfunding site has become a magnet for people raising money to pay for various, often dire, health care needs. And to succeed in the money-raising race, you need a good story (even if it’s about a really bad situation). Nathan Heller in The New Yorker: The Hidden Cost of GoFundMe Health Care. “Advantages in crowdfunding still go to the people who arrive with the most powerful connections and the best networks. After that, there is competition, with perverse incentives: whoever has the most heartrending story wins.” (This isn’t how I hoped my English major would eventually pay off…)
+ “Dozens of people were sprawled out in sleeping bags on the asphalt parking lot. Others had pitched tents on an adjacent lawn. The lot was already filled with more than 300 cars from all over the rural South.” While GoFundMe provides a digital collection of evidence of America’s health care shortcomings, pop-up free clinics are the real world counterpart. Both draw a big crowd. WaPo: Urgent needs from head to toe: This clinic had two days to fix a lifetime of needs.