[speaker001:] The AIDS issue is, is a bit of a problem. I guess the first thing that comes to my mind not having any immediate friends with that problem, is, is the financial end. And how can a country stand to, uh, spend as much or much more than they already are on such a problem, uh, but, then that kind of thinking is also tempered with the, the knowledge, or at least the, the rumor, I'm not really sure if it's true or not, that, uh, we're not spending as much per, let's say, afflicted person on cancer. Uh, there's some, uh, take breast cancer, for instance. It seems to be doing much more damage and affecting much more pe-, many more people than AIDS. And yet, uh, more people die of it, and yet the funding has already, uh, exceeded, AIDS has more money than, uh, breast cancer [breathing] [whistling].
[speaker002:] Than, well, that's interesting, isn't it, yeah.
[speaker001:] So, uh, I mean, if it's true. I, I've, I've always heard these things. I've never bothered to dig it out and make sure, but, uh, I've heard it on more than one documentary that, uh, they were complaining that whoever's sitting up there making these decisions or whatever institutions raise the money and, uh, it's just one big P R campaign that, yeah, we think that's the world's worst thing so let's give money to AIDS. And yet we've had breast cancer problems for years.
[speaker002:] Right.
[speaker001:] And, it's just one of those, uh, course, one of the shows I saw was taking it from the angle that, since it doesn't effect men, it's not going to get funded. And, uh, having thought about that for a while,
[speaker002:] [LAUGHTER] What did you think about that idea?
[speaker001:] [Breathing] Well, I, I kind of, I thought, well, that, that might be possible since there are a lot of men in control of that kind of thing. But then I got, I got to thinking, the, the number one killer of men seems to be the prostate and there's only one test that just recently got developed, uh, a blood in-, antigen, uh, antibody test for the antigen in the blood and that's fairly recent. And yet men have been dying from prostate cancer for years.
[speaker002:] They've not really given it attention either, yeah.
[speaker001:] So it's not really cured, yeah, it's not, uh, not that heavily funded either and then that seems to be one of the, the major, uh, problems that men have in the realm of cancer, so, I don't know. I, I guess there's just some strange public opinion as to who they want to give to. Uh, be it through different organizations, March of Dimes type, uh, telethons or, or bicycle rides or whatever, how they fund whatever, uh, illness they wish.
[speaker002:] Right.
[speaker001:] It's kind of hard to, to get an even keel on that. I mean, it's really hard to say, well, there's, you know, a hundred thousand per year affected by this one so let's give it this amount, and then this other one's only a tenth of that, so give it a tenth of that and, and just keep [breathing] doling it out that way or,
[speaker002:] Well, I'm, I'm glad I'm not the one that's, that's in charge of, of making those decisions. They, uh, you wish that there could just be money for all these problems because they're all so serious, you know. I mean it's not so serious, I guess, until it affects your family and then all of a sudden it's the most important thing.
[speaker001:] Right.
[speaker002:] [Lipsmack] So I, I would hate to have that [breathing] responsibility just personally but, but then, again, we really, we really do have it as a society to decide which things we need to address [breathing]. I, uh, I guess I, it, it frightens me to think [breathing] of so many people with, with AIDS and with cancer and many of those things, uh, if they're not able to, to be insured then the country's going to pay for it one way or the other.
[speaker001:] Right.
[speaker002:] Whether it's through prevention or, or [breathing] treatment or, you know, [pause] just, uh, just helping the people when they are not able to take care of themselves. It seems like one way or the other we're going to end up paying for it.
[speaker001:] That's true.
[speaker002:] But [very faint],
[speaker001:] You know the, the other thought that I had, uh, I've had several minutes to think about this after I, uh, while I was finding people, I, uh, I could think about the topic longer that the person that receives it, so it's kind of a, a [typo: that for than] unfair advantage,
[speaker002:] [LAUGHTER].
[speaker001:] as it were, but, the other thing that I thought of on this is, I wonder if there isn't enough money, uh, in our economy or in our system. Uh, it seems like there's so much that goes to things that don't really do a whole lot of good. I mean, yeah, they're kind of nice. But, we have such an affluent a-, society, society that I wonder if, if we took a little from here and there and the other if we might wind up with a, a cure for just about everything.
[speaker002:] Just change our p-,
[speaker001:] Of course, then we wouldn't have any room to put people, but that's [LAUGHTER],
[speaker002:] Right, just change our priorities
[speaker001:] Yeah.
[speaker002:] a little bit.
[speaker001:] You know, you hear these ridiculous figures for pizza or you hear these, these phenomenal amounts of dollars spent for this, that or the other and then you have all the arts that, that are nice and aesthetic, but
[speaker002:] Right.
[speaker001:] are they that enhancing for the, for the masses, you know. They certainly do well for those who go to the [breathing] symphony orchestra and all that, but, uh, had all that donation and time and labor and effort gone toward something else,