Stonetoss comic on free speech.
(media.kotakuinaction2.win)
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Plus for every one of those I could find you someone who wasn't cared for properly by the free healthcare providers, either they had to wait too long, they weren't treated carefully enough (ignored, not everything done for them), complications coming from cutting corners, etc.
My mother's friend was pretty young when she got breast cancer. She could clearly feel a lump, but the doctor told her she is wasting time and money that could be used on people who "really have cancer".
Yeah, like you can list off clear advantages and disadvantages of both systems.
But so many Europeans just talk as if their system is clearly overwhelmingly superior while brushing away stories of its faults. Then turn around and take the rare American cases are proof that everyone is suffering under the "inferior" system.
Exactly! I can totally understand that I will never live in a 0% tax country, I don't even want that. But here in Europe we are taxed so much that it feels like I am not allowed to take responsibility for my own needs because "just hand in all your money and we totally promise we will get you shit".
Not everyone is like this, which again, I understand. But at the same time being taxed out of my arse to pay for services nowhere near as good as they are claimed to be is just laughable.
Like the other commenter saying junk food needs to be taxed so people can be healthy. That's just one step above banning things he considers unhealthy.
What I am more for is letting people make choices, but then making them have to deal with the consequences, instead of trying to save people from themselves with these soft bannings and such.
One of the first things any adult American learns is that the government "moves at the speed of government," operates at "good enough for government work," and is filled with tax-expensive, cushy "government benefits."
A day at the DMV and an hour watching road work or the post office will show everyone why those phrases exist. Yet people want to give them MORE MONEY and entrust them with even more of their lives, and expect this time it'll produce quality.
And yeah, taxing things to try and curb behavior is literally letting the government moralize your life. Which is all fun and games until they start taxing you for "being too slutty, so Plan B is 900$" or "we think coffee is bad for you, Starbucks is 30$ a cup now."
They never think of the precedents being set.
The funny thing about the US vs Europe healthcare debate is, depending on what figures you look at, it's argued that the US system actually costs the government more per capita than the alternative. I think that was particularly the case for comparing the US to the UK, at any rate.
I'd hardly say I was an expert, but iirc, that's the core tragedy of the American system. It costs them similar amounts in tax, and then there was still the potential for paying huge amounts of money for the actual service afterwards (as well as potentially getting into fights with the insurance agencies over what they will and won't actually pay out for).
The Amercian system essentially, as far as I understood it last time I tried to get to grips with it, had all the failings of the alternatives but none of the actual benefits you'd expect for regular people using the system or the government in general. Both ends effectively get squeezed to make the middle men fabulously wealthy.
Personally, I take that as support for a UK style NHS type path, but I did get into a very discussion with someone over at the Reddit on the topic. You'll forgive my shitty memory, but I think it might have been Gizortnik and he had a very different solution to the same situation that boiled down to forcing the insurance companies to really fight for people's business so as to naturally push down the ridiculously inflated prices of everything, (though I wouldn't attempt to really explain in any detail because I do not remember anywhere near clearly enough).