It's because we let corporations pretty much run unchecked when running them. It's the libertarian / tea-party obsession with privatizing everything, including what most would argue should be state or federal run. Like prisons and healthcare!

Now we have prison systems running slave labor camps (mostly populated by black people, ironically) and their standard of quality just keeps getting worse to increase the bottom line of the corporation. They even have sued states for not maintaining a high enough population of prisoners per a contract. There was a big shit storm in California a few years ago when we pardoned a bunch of nonviolent offenders.

Our medical system is pretty much run by insurance companies now. Doctors are unable or afraid to make diagnosis because of fear of getting sued. Instead of spending time checking out the patient, it's usually forms and checklists and then off to the next patient while insurance reviews it to see what's covered. Our emergency rooms then get overworked because it's the only place you can go to get a proper diagnosis and treatment...and a huge bill that nobody can explain because their pricing system is seemingly random.

While Obama care was a move in the right direction, it totally made things worse. It was more of a centrist agreement between the government and the insurance companies that really put the tax on the middle class.

Sorry, I haven't slept much in the last few days and kind of went to ramble mode. If you got this far, thank you for the empathy from South Africa. It's truly sad how Orwellian this country has gotten and without some sort of revolution in politics, we are probably going to keep getting worse.