Your fellow Brit, Tim.Bua doesn't seem to think the British health care system is so great...

Speaking as a person raised in a single household with barely enough money to pay the rent and food, I disagree. Some people don't have t hose kind of options.

The British health care system has its own problems but is still leagues ahead of the US. The problem is that our system is left up to the free market. Libertarianism died with the advent of the second industrial revolution in this country. Laissez-faire simply doesn't work in today's modern global economy. I'm afraid Ron Paul ascribes to such failed policies of the gilded age, and spreads the myth that there is some kind of truer "American" libertarian base to which we must return.

Hell, Benjamin Franklin was popular for starting a number of different public systems, and Thomas Paine argued for a progressive income tax system only to render such revenues back to the greater public through social programs. Alexander Hamilton advocated a more national industrialized economy with a national bank, and established it as Secretary of the Treasury in George Washington's administration. Doesn't sound very libertarian to me. The Libertarian's poster child, Thomas Jefferson, only espoused such ideas within the context of wanting to create an economy based on local agriculture; his economic ideas don't apply to a modern industrialized nation.

I was raised poor also, my mother refused welfar growing up out of sheer principle. There were days I ate cereal with water and had mustard sandwiches for lunch. We never expected the government to be our keepers.

Goddam Tad. I preferred ketchup or syrup. LOL. Mustard sammiches is just weird you freak.

I'm not saying government as keepers of the individual, but more as overseers to make sure everyone gets adequate service. Like the inspectors that are supposed to inspect the food. Or the EPA that is supposed to keep an eye on the environment. Obviously our government needs an overhaul from the top down, but even major private companies have a hierarchy from the shift manager all the way to those that report to the CEO. Our government can do the same. Have someone or a committee in the Federal branch that is "in the know" about each states educational system. I don't see anything wrong with that and a lot right about it.

I understand your point, and it is avalid point. But that is how this whole mess started. Any attempt by the government to do such things invariably turns into a bureacracy, and that just fouls things up further. The only thing it does is ensure everyone gets equally BAD service. The free market is self regulating. Why do you think we have outperformed every socialist / communist country? The free market is our best option, in my opinion.

But when you remove all governmental oversight and regulation you end up with only rich people being able to afford good service and poor people being taken advantage of or just outright shafted. House construction and medical care come to mind right off the bat. Some things like computers and stoves might do great under the free market, but things that directly can effect your life needs a professional authority with clout to make sure people aren't being bullshitted.

With no governmental oversight, cars might not have bumbers and structurally sound roofs, and we might have mercury and God knows what else in our water supply.

Actually that's a myth... Without government oversight, there will be more high quality products, at cheaper prices. It will be because of competition. You have to realize that there are very few rich people out there, and the real money is made in catering to the middle class, which is where most people are. Why sell a few dozen $500,000 cars when you can sell millions of $30,000 cars? Do the math...

The free market is self regulating.

WalMart is an example that cheap but barely adequate trumps more expensive but higher quality. Most people will buy the shiny cheap crap over the safe but more expensive product. Most people want to buy better things but end up with what they can afford.
I'd much rather wreck in a Benz A-class than an Aveo. Which one is cheaper?

1) I have never heard of an Aveo...

2) Walmart is a huge improvement over Kmart, and Target is a bigger improvement still...

3) Government regulation will not ensure everyone a benz... It will ensure everyone a Yugo... In the absence of competition, things go to crap. Look at the Soviet Union...

That's what the opposite of the free market will get you, corruption.