Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: steve harris who wrote (646517)	10/17/2004 3:09:15 PM
From: Land Shark	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769670

socialized medicine is a failure... blah, dogma, blah... more dogma, blah, blah... and even more dogma. Year 2001 per capita health costs: Canada $2100 US (100 % covered by health insurance) USA $4800 US (with 35 million uninsured and growing) Life expectancy in Canada, 79.8 Life expectancy in USA, 77.3 Infant Mortality Rate, Canada: 3.4 per 100,000 Infant Mortality Rate, USA: 9.8 deaths per 100,000 And more than half of Canadians with severe mental disorders received treatment, compared with little more than a third of Americans, according to the May-June 2003 issue of Health Affairs. I don't believe for a moment your system is superior.

To: steve harris who wrote (646517)	10/18/2004 12:04:29 PM
From: DuckTapeSunroof	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769670

"socialized medicine is a failure..." If you say so... but since I've not posted any arguments FOR 'socialized medicine', I don't see what that has to do with me.... I simply posting an article about the AMA's views on whether the government should be allowed to negotiate for lower prices... the same as any other purchaser. Trying to find the lowest market-clearing price would seem to be an element of Capitalism, not 'Socialism'. "for that matter socialism is a failure...." This last comment seems to be a bit off topic, but I'll make a stab at it: I certainly agree that Communism has failed on the world stage, but 'Socialism' appears to be an even larger component of many of the world's economies then ever before --- including the US's. Economists call an economy comprised of various 'parts' (free market parts, regulated monopoly parts, government social programs organized as 'wealth transfer programs' or 'social insurance' parts) a "modern mixed economy". Nearly every economy in the world could be so described... with elements of socialism imbedded into the organizing structure of the nation. For example, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Farm Price Supports, etc., etc., etc. are properly considered to be organized along Socialist, not Free Market principles. I would only argue that it's hard to describe some principle that is in near universal world-wide use, (and growing in it's use, including in the US, as in the recent major expansion of Medicare) as a "failure".