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Originally Posted by hkbajwa  Well personallyi believe that god made man in his image. From that i infer that human perfection is not only a possibility .. it is an INEVITABILITY. In spite of the disheartening number of atrocities committed by humanity through the ages, i still think that we have progressively gotten better at handling things. No doubt it will take centuries even millenia yet to become "perfect".. but i have no doubt that it can happen. |
It hasn't happened yet. I'm living now not in the future.
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Well in that case denmark would be a nation of hypochondriacs.. Which i can assure you they are not. Free healthcare has only one result. A happier healthier population that is free of a basic burden to focus their minds and energies productively. It's a simple concept. If you are freed from the tension of SURVIVING, you have the energy to DEVELOP.
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It's not "free", you're paying for it, it's just getting redistributed. You still have to survive. You have to have money to live and eat. You can never get rid of that tension. Impossible.
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Again you have this awful notion that poor people invariably spend their money on booze and cigarettes. That's just a sweeping generalization that demonizes poor people. Let me tell you something about that.
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You have an awful notion about rich people that is a sweeping generalization, also.
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It is true that poorer classes often have a higher level of dependence on various inebriating substances. However this is a result of their social situation. It is a direct indication of how painful it is to be poor and unable to afford even some BASIC HUMAN NEEDS. Addicts from under priveliged backgrounds aren't looking for a good time. They are trying to excape from the suckiness of everyday living. Given the choice between health insurance which may or may not save your life int he future, and the IMMEDIATE relief of various substances, it is hardly surprising that they often wrongly choose the option for immediate relief.
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I think it's dimwittedness. Suckiness of daily living is everywhere. I gotta get up at 4:00 in the morning to catch a bus, then work for 10hrs., catch another bus, then I'm so exhauted I can hardly wait to go to bed. You create your own paradise. It's in your head.
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Well i think its VERY SAD that you have to be rich in order to matter. So your right to humane treatment should depend upon the size of your bank account?
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You have to matter to yourself first.
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Listen NOWHERE in the WORLD have the RICH ever been discriminated against in favor of the poor. It just does not happen.
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Martha Stewart didn't catch a huge break. Enron had some people go down pretty hard. They really didn't get out of anything. Being rich actually probably hurt them to a degree.
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Well the concept of a meritocracy is that a man is rewarded according to his ability. However in order for it to be a TRUE meritocracy, ALL participant in the race of life have to start at the same starting line. THAT is what i mean by equality.
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All people could be given the exact same starting point and the same people would be the doers and the same people the receivers. Everybody doesn't have the same intellect, or energy level.
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If a person simply does not have access to basic survival needs like healthcare and basic success needs like education, then how can you claim that he is being rewarded according to his ability. I mean it's like handing one man a jackhammer and the other a feather duster and then asking them to compete on who can break a stone to pieces the quickest. DO you really think that the man with the jackhammer ( who will invariably win ) won the competition because of his ability? Nope my friend, he won because he just happened to have the tools available to him while the other did NOT.
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Healthcare is really extremely important to older folks. That's when things start to go haywire. It's true some people are born with ailments, but the healthy ones shouldn't really start acquiring ongoing problems till around age 40.
If you are unhealthy, healthcare isn't going to make you more productive I wouldn't think. You might live longer, and have a slight increase in quality of life, but it's hard to say how much more productive you would be. If you smoke and drink you might acquire problems from that, or be an unreliable employee, but HC isn't going to be able to help you. Sometimes you have to take care of yourself. Doctor's in MHO are pill pushers. It's a lot of hit and miss. I know in Sweden and some of those countries everybody smokes. This has to put a tremendous burden on HC. Eventually the countries that have HC are going to have to do something about this. The US did so long ago, and smoking has been on the decline for quite some time now. I'd guess that it's at 24% population-wise as opposed to 40 yrs ago when it was like 50%.
I believe the bubble will burst on a lot of the socialistic programs that have taken hold in so many countries.
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Well we shall just have to agree to disagree. In a true democracy, the PEOPLE, through equal representation should decide. Setting taxes according to the wishes of the people is DEMOCRACY.
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This is true. The people should decide through their elected representatives. Problem is in a democracy people vote themselves more money many times.
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A democracy is nothing more than mob rule, where fifty-one percent of the people may take away the rights of the other forty-nine.”
Thomas Jefferson
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Well the american government has never had too much money, nor has any other government that i know of. I mean at least in america everything is grossly underfunded ( apart from the military ). So let's talk about THAT possiblity when it becomes a REALITY. OF COURSE there should be tax cuts if the government has nowhere to spend the money for the wellbeing of the citizens.. however that is not a reason to keep public institutions underfunded.
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We've had surpluses. If you have too many public institutions that aren't effective why keep funding them? Because once something is it's hard to get it to be isn't.
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hahahahaha.. well your military won't mean a thing when your citizens are dying of hunger, living under the stars, dying of curable diseases and dying by the thousands in disaster areas WITHIN THE NATION.
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I don't see this happening.