My question has always been - you don't mind paying for public school, why do you mind paying for health care? I just don't get it.
(This is probably unrelated; did not read walls of text. Sorry.)
My question has always been - you don't mind paying for public school, why do you mind paying for health care? I just don't get it.
(This is probably unrelated; did not read walls of text. Sorry.)
Its fine, the entire wall was summarized by the line:Originally Posted by solecistic
"In the end, we can't afford private health care, and we can barely afford universal, if even that. So we might as well suck it up and go universal." And by the end I mean within 10 years tops.
To pay for it? The liberals will raise taxes on the rich, and the GOP will...wait a minute...they want to lower taxes and further privatize health care. So basically they screw the entire idea over until they realize at the last minute what needs to happen. I'm not sure if the Dems realize that we have to go Universal yet, but hopefully they will figure it out, and hopefully this nation will stop being so scared of slight socialization in order to save its healthcare system.
Last edited by Kittens!; 05-20-2009 at 03:54 AM.
Schools lead to productivity which leads to the creation of money. The creation of money leads to a higher standard of living. Honestly though, I do mind paying for public schools too. I have yet to see a government program/service that comes anywhere near the efficiency possible in a truly free market.
Defense is probably an obvious example. There's no way that a private company or any other non-governmental group could ever possibly provide the services of national defense that the United States government currently provides.
EDIT: On the topic of health care, government health care programs in various European countries provide medical care at a substantially lower per capita cost than does the US system of private insurance companies. I'm not sure what you mean by "efficiency", but they are cheaper and don't leave 15% of the population uninsured, so that's a plus.
Last edited by Syme; 05-20-2009 at 01:01 PM.
Well, the US government uses a lot of contractors for that work these days. Under normal circumstances though, I would agree that defense is one of the very few roles that the government should undertake.
So, their shitty system is mildly better when it comes to cost than the shitty system we have now. How about we try a real free market health care system? One in which I can call around to clinics and hospitals and get real pricing information. I wouldn't take my car to an auto shop that wouldn't tell me their pricing, but I have to get my health care that way.EDIT: On the topic of health care, government health care programs in various European countries provide medical care at a substantially lower per capita cost than does the US system of private insurance companies. I'm not sure what you mean by "efficiency", but they are cheaper and don't leave 15% of the population uninsured, so that's a plus.
"Mildly"? US per capita health care costs are $6000 per year. For most developed European countries, it's around $3000 per year or less. They also don't leave nearly 50 million people uninsured, as the US system does.
Are you saying that in this system, people would pay for their medical care out-of-pocket on an as-needed basis, rather than having medical insurance? That's what it sounds like you are implying when you talk about calling around and checking prices.
What do you say if someone DOES mind paying for public schools? Hopefully not an ignorant statement similar to "oh well then you're just crazy."
No, I wouldn't simply say, "oh, well then you're just crazy." At the same time, people who really mind paying for public schools are probably more on the fringe when it comes to political opinions. That's not to say their opinion is totally irrelevant in a democracy, but someone that extreme probably isn't someone I have any reason to discuss this with because we're never going to come to any sort of agreement. Insisting that American government should be altered to exist only to protect the people from outside invasion is extreme libertarianism, and most people don't fall into that mindset.
Well, to be fair, our govt has been exponentially expanded beyond it's original role; we've been insisting on paradigm shifts for years. Picking and choosing which expansions are 'good' is largely arbitrary.
Although, I do agree that anyone holding contempt for public education, police etc is probably a bit fringe.
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