@wildgrass saidUS healthcare is a market of highly regulated products and so is much more expensive than either a) a completely free market, or b) a public utility.
Yeah maybe. It's not a bad idea. We do pay for utilities though. I'm not convinced it would be a cost saver overall. Either the overall cost stays the same or similar, or standard of care goes down.
Europe has made healthcare a public utility and the cost is about 1/3 of the US, with identical (even better in some cases; e.g. in-home nursing) standard of care. I know because I lived over there for 9 years, in two different 'socialist' nations.
Now, I believe that a TRULY free market in healthcare would produce the lowest possible costs - like the price of technology, the price of medicine should halve every few years because we keep making advances.
People have been scared into thinking that a healthcare free market would be "a disaster" (it wouldn't be) with "quack remedies everywhere" (they are already there; the head of HHS now denies vaccines) and "people dying in the streets" (they wouldn't).
BUT ... propaganda is effective. So I've stopped advocating for the best solution and (a la the Nash Equilibrium) I now advocate for the second best solution: Medicare For All. 😆
@wildgrass saidOh, you sweet summer child...There's grift and pork and incompetence in every government program, which is why, by and large, government sucks at doing stuff
No. Another agency, the NIH, tracks every dollar and can tell you exactly what it was spent on and holds institutions accountable for ethical violations and fraud. No one there spends $435 on a hammer. In fact, many areas of govern ...[text shortened]... at the DOD. Your "at least" argument is absurd. No one in the DOD asked for the extra $150 billion.
@sh76 saidI am pretty sure that wild grass at Al want to reduce military spending, and since the B2 bomber that obliterated Iran costs the most, , that would probably have been the first thing to go. So if we had no such bomber, Iran will still be building nuclear programs to bring upon death to America
There's grift and pork and incompetence in every government program, which is why, by and large, government sucks at doing stuff. It's not that the administrators are bad people, but lack of economic incentives will do that to a program. Nobody fundamentally gives a damn when the DoD pays $435 for a hammer. So it happens.
Still, as government programs go, at least military sp ...[text shortened]... f the government). But as government wastefulness goes, military spending is not the worst offender.
Has anyone wondered why the liberals are not concerned about death being brought to America?
@spruce112358 saidYou mentioned Healthcare free market. Could you define that for us capitalist Americans. Of course we will always be capitalist, so would it fit in with capitalism. I fear that you suggest that Healthcare be free. Am I correct?
US healthcare is a market of highly regulated products and so is much more expensive than either a) a completely free market, or b) a public utility.
Europe has made healthcare a public utility and the cost is about 1/3 of the US, with identical (even better in some cases; e.g. in-home nursing) standard of care. I know because I lived over there for 9 years, in two di ...[text shortened]... on and (a la the Nash Equilibrium) I now advocate for the second best solution: Medicare For All. 😆
I love this question, I think it is very simple and would illicit very informative answers from the forum. But that never happens. It would be a nice discussion, for liberals to try to convince conservatives that government,…among the other other 50 things they want for free,… should provide free healthcare to everyone, and as things are now, also to people who are illegal invaders.
Spruce: I just heard that America has only 4% of the world‘s population, yet we have 28% of the wealth. So , forgoing your usual complaining that we have too much wealth, we must be doing a lot of things right. So when you compare the UK to us, that they have some cheap medical care??? We have a lot more than the UK does when you look at the big picture.
Yep, you libs leave a lot off the table when you make..when you try to make,,, a point
@AverageJoe1 saidWhy does Trump keep saying he cannot control who comes back from El Salvador? there are FOR SURE people who are NOT gang bangers, there by mistake. Like Garcia.
My knee-jerk is...what have we got to do with El Salvador? What have we got to do with Guadapupe? If people break into your house, the police find out whre they are supposed to be, and they tell them to stay in their places where they belong, or they will be thrown in the hole. I am sure you would agree with that. But if they are illegally in the jurisdiction of those ...[text shortened]... hem Happy", such as that.
Or am I wrong? Do you want them out of here? Another easy question.
So when the lawyers for those people say dude X is innocent, trump goes sorry, collateral damage, they stay in that Gulag, for life, I can't do a thing about it because it is up to El Salvador to fix not me.
Why is that?
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@sonhouse saidLooks like a lot of people in the wrong place at the wrong time? Or some may be in right place at wrong time, or wrong place, right time.....then, establishing that, we would move on to decide the facts of each case.
Why does Trump keep saying he cannot control who comes back from El Salvador? there are FOR SURE people who are NOT gang bangers, there by mistake. Like Garcia.
So when the lawyers for those people say dude X is innocent, trump goes sorry, collateral damage, they stay in that Gulag, for life, I can't do a thing about it because it is up to El Salvador to fix not me.
Why is that?
Complete your post please, giving us all of the details of each person. I would like to know why they are not living in their own countries. Do you live in your own country? If you moved to, say, Chad, would you not be giving up a bit of the freedom that you had in your country? Taking a risk? Libs do not like the word risk.
Now, if you skip my idea of taking each on a case-by-case basis (very expensive, an expense brought on by the very person we are investigating), then we are left with a blanket decision. Let them all live where they want to live?? Or, send them ALL back to their country of residence.
Sonhouse, welcome to Common Sense, by Average Joe.
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@AverageJoe1 saidDid you even read that post? The JUSTIFICATION for all those cuts, which was BS BTW IN THE FIRST PLACE, the justification was there to allow Billionaires to get a huge tax break which is EXACTLY why I call it a TAX BRIBE. SUCK UP TO BILLIONAIRES at the TOTAL expense of poor folks who get screwed BY THE MILLIONS.
You could gain more supporters on the forum if you would pose answers and solutions to the problems which you post. Like, would you simply not fire anyone? After all, they have to make money to live on. We have to think of that.
But you see not a THING wrong with that, just going along with the LITERAL Sinister ZOMBIES who thought this scam up.
So tell me, how are we going to make up that 2/3 cut in IRS income now, eh?
Don't EVEN go WELL THE ECONOMY will magically grow double in size so EVERYONE wins.
THAT is TOTAL BS. ESPECIALLY if you count the coming effects on our economy when Trump really CRIMINAL tariffs get going full blast.
Tell me how the citizens of US having to pay some 2 or 3 thousand dollars more then they would have without the tariffs, how is that going to contribute to making the economy grow, eh?
REAL economic experts analyzed that and find huge loss of jobs due DIRECTLY because of tariffs where a company say, cannot survive paying 30 or so more % for some part totally impossible to make here and folks refuse to pay that tax and so that company goes bankrupt. For instance, car parts we cannot make here because we gave up the technology to do that like how we let the world make steel while for instance my own hometown steel companies went broke and now that giant infrastructure is now a CASINO here in Bethlehem PA.
So no steel here except retreds from grinding up cars and pipes and such, which is a viable business but that is just a recycling business, not making new steel which means figuring out how to make ever stronger steel based on new steel made in the US.
And to get that industry back on its feet will take a DECADE of work to get going so in that decade, even assuming we DO make a huge investment in our own steel manufacturing, which is also up in the air, that may never happen, so even if we DO make that multi billion dollar investment it will LITERALLY take a decade or more to get going, like training workers to run the new mills we have not had for what 60 years? And the like.
So take bananas, we don't have the right weather to grow our own bananas and Trump is going to tariff those as well, so the price of bananas will go up by what ever nonsense tariff he foists on us with the theory, WE NEED TO GROW THEM HERE.
Sorry, we CANNOT grow banana's here but does Trump give a rats ass about that? No he doesn't so produce of all kinds go up some 30 %, like mango's, my personal favorite fruit, you see many mango trees here in the US?
No, I DID see a LOT of mango trees, when I lived in Thailand for several years which is how I grew to love mangos after coming back to the US.
So what will Trump do? force our weather to accommodate the growing of bananas and Mangos, as just a couple of examples?
THAT is why our economy will NEVER grow much because Americans citizens pay for the tariffs as you well know so stuff that used to cost X amount of dollars before tariffs now cost 1.3 TIMES X so seeing that increase in price a lot of folks will not be able to afford the increase so will not buy so the total money in that particular industry will drop off meaning there will be companies going out of business and the resultant loss of jobs and a vicious cycle takes place.
The economy WILL go into a recession if not a full blown DEPRESSION just like in 1930.
So what will you say when all THAT plays out, eh?
@sh76 saidVirtually every type of domestic spending creates more jobs per dollar than military spending.https://www.brown.edu/news/2017-05-25/jobscow
There's grift and pork and incompetence in every government program, which is why, by and large, government sucks at doing stuff. It's not that the administrators are bad people, but lack of economic incentives will do that to a program. Nobody fundamentally gives a damn when the DoD pays $435 for a hammer. So it happens.
Still, as government programs go, at least military sp ...[text shortened]... f the government). But as government wastefulness goes, military spending is not the worst offender.
@AverageJoe1 saidI've never complained about this. 😆
forgoing your usual complaining that we have too much wealth,
@AverageJoe1 saidIs your water free? How about electricity (maybe: you might have solar)? Gas, then.
You mentioned Healthcare free market. Could you define that for us capitalist Americans. Of course we will always be capitalist, so would it fit in with capitalism. I fear that you suggest that Healthcare be free. Am I correct?
I love this question, I think it is very simple and would illicit very informative answers from the forum. But that never happens. It would b ...[text shortened]... provide free healthcare to everyone, and as things are now, also to people who are illegal invaders.
There's your answer. 😆
Extra credit question: How do people with no money get water and power?
@spruce112358 saidI don't imagine US healthcare would ever be able to do that level of cost savings even with strong political and public support.
US healthcare is a market of highly regulated products and so is much more expensive than either a) a completely free market, or b) a public utility.
Europe has made healthcare a public utility and the cost is about 1/3 of the US, with identical (even better in some cases; e.g. in-home nursing) standard of care. I know because I lived over there for 9 years, in two di ...[text shortened]... on and (a la the Nash Equilibrium) I now advocate for the second best solution: Medicare For All. 😆
One small example is pharmaceutical costs. The US pays way more because the innovation was done here which offsets the cost overseas.
@wildgrass saidI know that the the supervision and accountability is so effective that there's no graft, pork or waste in government programs?
Cop out. You know I'm right.
@no1marauder saidI will admit that article is eye-opening, so thank you. Still, number of jobs created is one, very limited, metric.
Virtually every type of domestic spending creates more jobs per dollar than military spending.https://www.brown.edu/news/2017-05-25/jobscow
Plus, you'd have to correct for the non-economic security benefits that defense provides to make a real apples-to-apples comparison.
Anyway, security vs. healthcare and education is not a dichotomy. Each type of spending and each element of spending within the framework can be worth it or not worth it.