18th June 2003, 9:51 PM
Quote:Originally posted by Great Rumbler
I'm not mad at the government for not giving free or reduced medical care to my family, I'm mad at the insurance companies who make huge amounts of money and the people who get huge settlements in court over little things that drive up the cost of insurance.
And there you have why 40 million people have no healthcare.
Quote:First, poor people buy lots of fast food. It is really cheap. Our society is the first in history where the POOR are fat and the RICH thin. Always before, the rich were fat and the poor thin because of how poor people couldn't get as much rich foods... now, the poor are fat because the cheapest foods are the worst for you. And foods good for you are expensive. That is a huge change in society...
Bullshit. Fast food is cheap, sure. So are fruits and vegetables. Skim Milk costs as much as whole milk. Water is cheaper than sugary sodas. Lean foods cost little more than their fatty counterparts. Eating out is almost ALWAYS more expensive than cooking your own meals.
Why do people eat fast food more than healthy food? Convenience. People are too lazy to cook.
Quote:Next... taxes. No one likes taxes. But almost everyone can (or should be able to) see the benefits of them. I just can't see how Republicans can legitimately say "we don't want to support the schools, the poor, the middle class, the working people, etc. We just want to do things that help rich people" and be successful at it... it just makes no sense to me... and I also don't understand how you pass off so many great and very useful programs as "government waste". Again, it just puzzles me how people take those statements of how Republicans want poor people to be poor forever and die young and the middle class to be stuck in a mediocre situation for all time and say "that's a great idea!"...
I want poor people to be poor forever? That's ridiculous! I want poor people to work, and educate themselves! I want everyone to strive to be rich! It's people like YOU who want the poor to stay poor by giving them a free ride! Again, and it's been proven ever since government assistance began in America, people who live off of the government have no incentive to work or educate themselves. Why waste time working when you get money for NOT WORKING? Thus, welfare recipients are poor and will stay poor until they die, because they'll never want to make a better life for themselves, and that's what liberals love because when liberals give the poor handouts, the poor vote liberal. And the middle-class? How can they ever better themselves when they're being increasingly taxed to death? What incentive is there to try to become rich when, in a socialist mindframe, most of it would be taken away from you?
No sir, it's the liberals who are responsible for the poverty problem in America, and all you people want to do is make it worse with your ridiculous ideas.
Quote:Health Care. Weltall, you claim that we have better heath care than Canada. That is false, by a factual basis. We do NOT. In fact our healthcare system is pretty low by world rankings. Why? BECAUSE 40 MILLION AMERICANS HAVE NONE! And with no health care you get essentially no service. So while for the people with top health plans its the best in the world, and for people with mid-range plans (like most people) its okay but not really that great (because of HMOs largely...), for the poor... its awful. Truly terrible. And because of that our healthcare system is fatally flawed until we fix that problem. Its just common sense that a healthy society will be more productive! Isn't that reasonable?
40 million without, 240 million with. I can't call that fatally flawed. Hell, I could afford insurance to cover a $50,000 gastrointestinal surgery, and I work at fucking Wal-Mart for Christ's sake.
But that wasn't my point. My point is the service given in America is far superior to Canada's. Do you think for a moment that when I had a doctor going inside my stomach that I would want a doctor who was barely making more money than I am, and who only reached his position because everyone more skilled than he is at gastrointestinal surgery moved to America because of the better pay? I got a doctor, John Kellum, who makes a ton of money because he's one of the best there is in the field. I had absolutely no compunction at all paying medical insurance premiums in order to get someone skilled poking around inside of me.
And again, the reason why Health insurance is so out of reach for some people is the liberalization of healthcare which allows for more insurance claims, harsher malpractice insurance costs, and worst of all, completely and unconditionally free healthcare for uninsured people, especially illegal immigrants, which is frequently abused as it is. And don't tell me it doesn't exist, it most certainly does. Doctors cannot turn an injured person away, no matter how tame the injury is. Our healthcare, while still superior in quality to practically every other nation in the world, is in the mess it's in because of liberalization and attempts to slowly socialize medicine. As you can see, it's been a massive failure so far, so to socialize it even more would only compound the problem.
We don't NEED free healthcare, we need deregulated, de-liberalized healthcare! We need the private sector more than ever now!
Quote:Oh that's right Weltall, middle-class people should be punished by not getting any healthcare because they don't make enough money. Such righteousness!
Keep in mind the reason for that is because the poor often abuse the healthcare system, the hospitals spend thousands of dollars on people who can't pay them, so they pass the buck to insurance companies, who pass the buck onto you. Keep that in mind the next time you go to the doctor and you see a poor person there because they have the sniffles or 'depression'. Keep in mind that because they get treatment for free, you have to pay more for your own treatment because you're paying for their sniffles.
YOU CANNOT HIDE FOREVER
WE STAND AT THE DOOR
WE STAND AT THE DOOR