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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Tenchusatsu who wrote (344081)	7/24/2007 11:24:02 AM
From: combjelly	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 1573430

"Was their socialized health care incapable of handling the big heat wave just a few years ago?" No. Since such things aren't generally considered a health care issue, so it should be no surprise. I suppose you think this is some sort of killer point, but darned if I can see what it is. "Yet our government at all levels refuse to deal with the problem, even though their job descriptions should be clear. " Yep. The agencies which are directly involved have had their funds cut back and have had obstacles thrown in their path. So it is possible for the bureaucracy to be manipulated for political reasons. But the present system isn't immune to such things. Look at the drug bill. Big Pharma and the insurance companies saw an opportunity to bite off a chunk of cash. Given a Congress that was amenable to letting them write the legislation and an executive who was willing to get their political appointees to lie about the costs, it was a done deal. So yes, if you have a government corrupt enough at all levels to collude on such things, it can happen. But that is the exception, rather than the rule. Which is the whole problem with the concept of a small, efficient government. It is much more prone to corruption, it even invites it. It is a lot easier to replace the much smaller number of key people and coordinate them to do these things.

To: Tenchusatsu who wrote (344081)	7/24/2007 7:51:05 PM
From: tejek	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1573430

CJ, > You've never really explained what is unique about the American system that those problems would manifest here and no one else has them to the magnitude that you hypothesize would happen. a) Part of what makes America unique is the free-spirited culture that values individuality, diversity, and independent thinking. Socialism only works well in a conformist society, and even then, it becomes a game of getting the most for the least amount of effort. I see........Germans are lazy and Americans are hard working. That such a crock I am surprised you believe it. b) The grass is NOT greener on the other side of the pond. I've said it before and I'll say it again. You can always point to places where they have socialism working so well, but you would have to ignore the problems associated with it. And you often do. Take France for example. Was their socialized health care incapable of handling the big heat wave just a few years ago? What a ridiculous example.......was America's capitalistic health insurance able to stop the deaths of people in Chicago's heat wave a few years back? How many new drugs are developed in France anyway? How many drugs has France developed? Do you even know? Did you know that the largest pharmaceutical companies are in Europe? How come France's economy is still sluggish and lagging well behind ours? What does that have to do with a health care? And just for the record, Europe's economy is doing better than ours. That's why their stock markets have done better during the past three years than the Dow and the Naz. In fact, for the past 5 years, the Dow and the Naz have been laggards compared to the stock markets of Japan, China, Asia, S. America, Russia and Europe. I bet you didn't know that. Nothing happens in a vacuum. On the contrary, your information and understanding of the problem comes from a vacuum. c) We've got a huge illegal immigration problem, something that rich nations like ours usually have to deal with. Yet our government at all levels refuse to deal with the problem, even though their job descriptions should be clear. With universal health care, you're going to see that problem become even worse. Not only that, but you'll also spread the same incompetence of bureaucrats over into health care. Health care in this country is dictated by the profit motive. When did profit become more important than a person's life? As with many similar issues, your motivation and positioning are self serving.....and for no other reason, that makes them very suspect.