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Pastimes : Let's Talk About Our Feelings!!! -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Alan Smithee who wrote (102866)	5/2/2005 2:16:59 PM
From: Grainne	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 108807

Canada's medical system certainly seems to have some inadequacies. It is a fairly new national health system, and I hope they are trying to make it better. The type of national health system that seems to work best is one where everyone who lives in a country (and in some that includes all visitors as well, like Great Britain) has fairly rapid access to basic good medical care, and also has private doctors available for people who want deluxe care and can afford to pay for it. Any country offering such a system is providing better medical care than the United States does. The countries with a higher standard of living and a larger middle class typically have higher taxes than America. If you visit a European family, you would typically discover that they are very secure financially, have higher savings per capita than Americans, but pay a higher percentage of their income in taxes. Most Europeans believe that healthy children enjoying universal preschool, paid time off for new mothers, and quality medical care for everyone are worth the trade off, since the societies are more uniformly middle class and there aren't so many people sleeping in the streets, etc. Europeans tend to live in less space and have smaller cars that use less gasoline. They have fewer consumer goods. But European design is very nice and high quality. I personally think Americans have gone absolutely insane in their quest for five car garages, two story living areas in monster houses, and so many consumer goods there still isn't enough space to put them. Some of us can buy those things because we pay less in taxes overall. But I don't think paying less taxes is really a symbol of a higher standard of living. It's luxury for the few, suffering and hunger for the poor, and many middle class, middle aged Americans with no health insurance. You may think that's great, but I don't.