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There is nothing quick, simple, inexpensive and easy to do that a government can't make agonizingly slow, overly-complicated, extremely expensive and impossible to accomplish.
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Some very good points being made...I have been in the military, worked for the post office, been a bus driver for a public bus system, and worked for a short time with the u.s. state department in DC. In short, I have spent most of my life working for the federal government, and have found that most of these places have a lot in common, as to how they are opperated. Even as a marine, I can tell you that most of them have their heads up their asses when it comes to sence and good reason, which is why the concept of government running the hospitols in this country, scares the crap out of me.I don't believe in capitolism, but in this case, I think if you have a problem with your health coverage.....go back to school. The government isn't hear to wave the money wand, and make your problems go away...
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???
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???
Even though we've had Universal Healthcare in Canada for as long as I can remember, I can NEVER remember a time when a trip to the hospital was anything akin to dealing with the post office or the DMV or the military.
My last experience was to walk in just a few months after being diagnosed, have a hernia operation, and walk out without having to open my wallet, have a credit check or re-mortgage the house.
("chuckle" at the US fear-mongering! You probably don't have enough genuine maple syrup and beer that doesn't resemble water in your diet. Watching more hockey wouldn't hurt either.)
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Let's have anarchy then. What great fun that would be! Yes, it reminds me of the French Revolution. That ended well, of course.
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This is another 'philosophical' argument against the government and its role in society. I see this argument from anti-government conservatives quite often. They always point out the DMV and the IRS as great examples of how bad government is and that it doesn't help people but rather a useless bureaucratic mess of tax payers money. What conservatives (and liberals, sometimes) do not talk about are the basic principals behind some of the government regulations and agencies that are there to promote the social welfare of a society. For instance, consider the Center for Disease Control. It researches things that the free-market either doesn't have the incentive to research or have the resources to effectively research some incredibly advanced problems. Also, consider electricity companies and the grid they set up. Do you think that a company should invest in the electric grid and compete with other companies for something that is necessary for our society to flourish? Should we just hope that the free-market will take care of something like this? Same thing with the CDC. I sure don't want to hope that some company is researching a virus that could wipe out our civilization because I'm a hardened ideologue. I tend to think that a collectivists approach to helping our society flourish that isn't dictated by profits is very necessary in a lot of circumstances.
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This is another 'philosophical' argument against the government and its role in society. I see this argument from anti-government conservatives quite often. They always point out the DMV and the IRS as great examples of how bad government is and that it doesn't help people but rather a useless bureaucratic mess of tax payers money. What conservatives (and liberals, sometimes) do not talk about are the basic principals behind some of the government regulations and agencies that are there to promote the social welfare of a society. For instance, consider the Center for Disease Control. It researches things that the free-market either doesn't have the incentive to research or have the resources to effectively research some incredibly advanced problems. Also, consider electricity companies and the grid they set up. Do you think that a company should invest in the electric grid and compete with other companies for something that is necessary for our society to flourish? Should we just hope that the free-market will take care of something like this? Same thing with the CDC. I sure don't want to hope that some company is researching a virus that could wipe out our civilization because I'm a hardened ideologue. I tend to think that a collectivists approach to helping our society flourish that isn't dictated by profits is very necessary in a lot of circumstances.
As far as the individual argument about the government helping me personally, I do agree that we should not be dependent on any government, whether it is the local police department or something like the National Security Agency. I'm not going to go into the issues with various social welfare programs, the wasteful spending and dependency on such programs unless you really want me to.
I think I have gotten off track here. About the governments role in healthcare, there are a multitude of various issues with trying to argue over this because everyone has such a subjective argument on this. Stephan Hawking said that he would likely be dead at an early age if he didn't have Great Britain's socialized healthcare program. However, without some of the advanced medical research that the US's free-market approach has (provided? helped?), we wouldn't be leading the world in some of the best medical procedures on the planet. Unfortunately, basic preventive care has become unaffordable for a lot of Americans and that is because of a multitude of reasons. The insurance industry, pharmaceutical prices, the cost of a doctors degree, lack of incentive for doctors to become general practitioners, torts needing to be reformed and so on are just a few of the reasons (i could have worded this better, i know) so there is a lot more going on than the simplified argument that boils down to "look how bad the DMV, the IRS, VA is! Do you want those agencies running your hospital?"
Going into the proper mix of regulation and free-market capitalism is a worthy of a very intensive study and I'm sure you will find plenty of reports from various think tanks on the internet.
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Actually, the most terrifying words are what came at the end of that quote "President Ronald Reagan". Personally, I think we should keep the mentally ill out of political offices. The man was too goddamn stupid to realize he was from the government and was "trying to help" (ahem, supposedly).
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As for this persistent lie the conservatives push about "big government" being the enemy, this is a wrong starting point.
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As for this persistent lie the conservatives push about "big government" being the enemy, this is a wrong starting point.
What you need is a government that is connected to its people via an honest and fair democracy...
You do not have that largely due to the Trumps, the Kochs, the Corporations etc and TV advertising as part of a consumer pacifying slow drip of bullshit dope.
The size of the government is then just related to the size of the tasks set by the people who elect that government (rather then the unelected current owners)
Health care is a strong part of good government in other nations that still have centrist and conservative politicians ... But since it is democratic it all feels good, and provides much better value healthcare than the Insurance company corrupted shite
This is what ordinary Americans who think its all about corrupt politicians struggle to understand.
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He was, of course, talking about himself there...
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He was, of course, talking about himself there...
This was the man, how before he had Alzheimer's, wanted to join with Gorbachev in a multi million dollar plan to shield the planet from alien invaders.
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Why would we want them in our police stations? Our fire stations? Our schools? Maintaining our roads? Running our military? Or doing anything at all? Where is the line of the acceptable size of government?
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Ronald Regan was not only a Republican..he had Alzhiemers. and he was as big a liar as the rest. and frankly, not all that good an actor, either.why the heck would I want the DMV, the post office, the IRS or a military battalion in my hospital?.
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Ronald Regan was not only a Republican..he had Alzhiemers. and he was as big a liar as the rest. and frankly, not all that good an actor, either.why the heck would I want the DMV, the post office, the IRS or a military battalion in my hospital?.
what /is/ the purpose of "government"?
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