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Originally Posted by will76
So I guess you going to hell then if you don;'t give away every last penny to the poor people right not that can't afford health care?  because if you have a nice car, a flat screen tv, money in your savings account, then you must value material things over other people's help. |
If you mean donate it all to a charity, or individual cases, that actually just perpetuates the problem. People then think charities are there to save the unfortunate, when in reality they can only assist a fraction of the cases, and their funding is unreliable. It alleviates society's guilt undeservedly. Universal healthcare can only be organized effectively through good government.
What I am doing personally is transitioning my wealth and family to a more moral country. So instead of bringing wealth into the USA, I'll be draining it out. That's unfortunate, but I've seen enough. I have already moved a significant amount of money, bought property there, and now we're just waiting for an elderly pet to pass before emigrating. I'll definitely miss a lot of stuff here, but it's a conscience thing. Currently I don't feel good about where my taxes go, and where they don't go. The amount is irrelevant, but by the time you add up federal, state, self employment, etc then it might actually save me money to move to a "socialist" country.
Quote:
Originally Posted by will76
I hate to tell you, but if no one could have jets, and mansions, 100K sports cars and those other luxuries then we would be a third world country. It is capitalism that enables the majority of us to work hard and strive to be successful. No one busts their ass just to make more so they have more to give away to the people who have less. If people don't strive to be successful then there is less wealth made in this country to rape to pay for the "have nots". The country as a whole would go to shit a lot worse than it is now.
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Most capitalist countries provide universal government run healthcare, and their rich still lead very privileged lives full of all the same excesses we have here in America. Unfortunately some people never feel enough is enough. Personally, I have zero sympathy for someone more worried about whether they can afford that 3rd home or 6th car while the people who work for them go untreated. This strawman argument that somehow the rich paying a few percent higher means they'll give up their successful business and wait tables for a living instead is absurd. The gap between rich and poor isn't that small. Infact, it's so massive most Americans can't even see the other side of it. The top 1% control 42% of the wealth. Our rich can afford it, especially after we reinvest all the money we're currently wasting on our corrupt private insurance system. In practice, the difference would not impact the average millionaire lifestyle in any noticeable way. Unless they made that money by denying healthcare.
The average cost of universal healthcare in most countries is about 10% of GDP. Any civilized society can afford that, and again it's cheaper than our current system (16%). That's what Americans need to understand; they are paying more for less. And it's a fatal ripoff.
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Originally Posted by will76
You have a problem with people who work hard "gasp" from being able to have nice things if the other 300 million people in the US can afford health care. My problem is that a lot of the people who can't afford to have health care choose not to through their own irresponsibility.
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That is complete corporate apologist bullshit. The vast majority without insurance do not have it because they can not afford it, because the employer doesn't offer it, or because they have preexisting conditions. At least this weak ass reform bill is supposed to take care of the latter. And prevent them from dumping customers as soon as they get seriously sick. That's how they make so much money, by denying care to people who paid their premiums for years. This isn't just about the uninsured. The fools who thought the system worked just never had it put to the test. They didn't know about lifetime limits and all the other exclusions. And by the time you discover you're not as covered as you thought, it's too late, and noone else would cover you, and you're bankrupt or dead. And it's all legal, so you (or your grieving family) can't even successfully sue. It's a scam.
And then we have the repulsive issue of losing coverage when you lose your job, accepting shit working conditions out of fear of your family losing coverage. It's a system built for slaves.