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To: Moominoid who wrote (30500)	5/1/2005 7:38:47 PM
From: GraceZ	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 306849

Australia is definitely not a socialist country in any sense... probably less so than the US is! Maybe you need to define what you mean by socialist if you think Australia isn't socialist. The US is also very socialist and getting more so by the minute. Socialist countries are characterized by government interference in free markets and the free voluntary exchange of goods and services, diminished private property rights and government interference in individual freedoms. Like my freedom to work for whatever wage I wish, my freedom to go the school of my choice, my freedom to save for retirement or spend that money on something else, my freedom to spend my money on caring for my own parents instead of being compelled to pay for someone else's parents before my own. The freedom to chose whatever healthcare option I think best fits my needs and to negotiate the price with the provider free of government intervention! The freedom to charge whatever I want for my own services. No free market system compels individuals to enter into transactions involuntarily as our medical system is compelled to do daily. Economics is the study of how scarce resources are used. Individuals make economic choices, like when you choose to decide to spend your money on your education instead of buying a fancy car you are making a choice of how to use your scarce resource, in your own pursuit of happiness (guaranteed by our Constitution). Politicians, who make most of the choices in government, OTOH make political choices that have economic ramifications. When they choose to take your money and my money, then spend it on what they think is best (or what will get them re-elected), or what the majority thinks is best, they are taking your right to make those most important of choices for yourself. You have to ask yourself, who do you want making those choices about what is more important for you, an elected official or yourself? Maybe that 9% is better invested in a small business that would support you and generations of your offspring for years to come. Government has no right to take that choice away from you and then trick you into thinking that the company you work for is paying that cost (you are paying the 9%) or that the medical insurance is "free".....nothing in this world is "free". The cost may not be apparent, you may think it is shifted to someone else, but in the end you pay it, somehow. A basic truth of economics is that you can not get something for nothing. I don't think anyone wants their choice to be taken away from them....but they have doubts about the next guy making the right choice so they vote for people who will take those freedoms away, for the "public good". There is free public healthcare in Aus, but there are tax incentives to get private health insurance and 30-40% of the population has it. This balance seems to work pretty well. It's a small country with an economy that is growing strongly. The problems are down the road. Socialism can't help creating incentive traps, it creates them everywhere eventually.