For a hundred years, Moral Philosophers have used the Trolley Car Story to illustrate the "Right vs. Wrong" implications of one of life's thorniest problem....."Do the Good of the Many, Outweigh the Good of the Few". All of us see it, face it, choose it, and cry over it, every single day. This "hard choice" is not just a personal dilemma, it is embedded in the dynamics of families, cities, states and nations. Often we speak obliquely about our alignments with these morallly burdened situations. We speak utilitarian, or melencoly or with feigned obliviousness. But we know!
That having been said, shine a light on Branson, Mo., the Ozark's wildly successful small city "funplex", that just happens to have nine milion visitors and a tax base seven times that of size comparable cities. Cool place if your one of the nine million visitors, or one of the counties 60,000 "Well" residents..........but not so much if you are a resident that is "mentally ill".
If you live in Taney County and find yourself, or a family member/friend, in a state of disassociation, irrationalness and self endangerment, where do you go for help? Sometimes there is safety and recovery in the family structure, the church structure, the "appointment based/for-profit"counseling community, the tax based EMTs, the police, and finally, the 60,000 citizens believe,....THE HOSPITAL.
But, as Dr. Phil asks: "How's that working for you?" The sad reply is "not very damn well". Why? Well my personal assessment is that Cox Hospital, Branson's "single provider", technically non-profit, Hospital has policy implemented the "save the many" Trolley Care Option", thereby successfully saving we the 60,000 Wells, from the burdensome financial cost of providing "full service mental crisis care". Is this harsh choice really necessary? Who, or whom, is this policy saving? Are we the 60,000 Wells really going over a financial cliff if we choose "better angels services" instead of "bottom line mandated services"
Quite frankly, I don't remember voting on whether we, the 60,000 Branson Wells, want to pay for sensible mental health services, or whether we are satisfied that ...."it's not likely to be me on the Trolley Care and so I'll be okay with Cox Hospital ER just validating the stable vitals for the mentally ill and then sending "them" out the door in an Uber with three telephone numbers to call on Monday.