Are people really that stupid?

With the things I read in the news on a daily basis, I have come to the conclusion that the press, and government think we are a bunch of idiots. Last week, we get the "conclusive" study about men choosing their mates based on looks, and today, I saw an article about health care costs passed on the employees outstripping wage hikes by 50% or more. All I can say is DUH!!!! This has been the case for the last 5 or 6 years. Do they think that we don't know it? You sit down for your annual evaluation, and get told with a big smile that you met or exceeded all your goals/expectations, and you are now the proud recipient of a 3.5% raise! Wow, obviously not even a basis cost of living raise. So, now you're getting an extra $12 a week. Then, about a month after you finally start to see your raise in your paycheck, a memo comes from HR. Your already expensive health care has just gone up $15 more dollars a paycheck. So, there goes your raise, plus another $3 out of your pocket every week! I am done with it...why is health care so damn expensive. You really want to know? We have gotten so smart, and so conscious of health care problems, that we run to the doctors office as soon as our sniffles start, convinced by the drug companies that we need a $90 a month medication to control them.
Now, I used to be one of those people. Believe you me, I was suicidally depressed after my daughter died, and medicated myself heavily. For over a year. I also did it after she was born, for about 3 years. Anti-depressants, anti-anxiety, muscle relaxers, you name it, if it was supposed to "help" you, I took it. People are obsessed with staying young, and alive for as long as they possibly can. People aren't supposed to live forever. I don't want to live with a horrible disease wasting away every moment, all the while trying to prolong the agony. I want to die before I forget my daughter, before I forget my son. Before I start calling my grandchildren by their names. I don't want to live with cancer, or with God knows what horrible wasting sickness comes along. I would rather die surrounded by my family, knowing that I wasn't wasting their time, or breaking their hearts bit by bit.
I am living 2300 miles away from my parents and sisters for this, of many reasons. My father had a stroke and heart attack 13 days ago, he's 50. He has been through so much. Diabetic since the age of 16 or so, kidney failure, dialysis, kidney transplant, leg amputation, multiple fingertip amputations, diabetic retinopothy, laser eye surgery to prevent retinal detachment, another leg amputation, first heart attack, prostate & bladder nerve damage, and now, a major stroke and minor heart attack, and they don't know what came first. By all rights, he should have been dead about 15 years ago. He keeps fighting, and he should just give up. This is my father that I am talking about, and I love him very much, but how much does he expect us to take. I moved far away to get away from the constant hospital visits, the increasing dependence on Oxycontin, the muddled mind, and lack of vision. I don't know how else to say it, but it is time for him to give up the fight, and let the rest of us live on with the few memories of the better times. Half of my life, he's been sick. I've started to forget what it was like before he got sick. My mother has stayed by his side through everything. EVERYTHING. I would have done the same for my husband, but after my daughter was gone, nothing seemed as important as my own little family, and what was left of it. I couldn't give any more than I had given for my entire life. I gave up so much of it already, to him, to my husband, to my daughter, to everyone. I didn't have anything else to give anymore. That's why we left, I couldn't be sympathetic and caring anymore. I just couldn't do it. I still can't. Maybe someday I will be again.