Canadian Study a Lesson for Teabaggers: "Three in Four Suffer From Cuts to Public Spending" »
Posted By Radiofreeeuropa 6 months, 3 weeks ago in Political News
When governments contract out to private enterprise to provide necessary services, they almost invariably do so under a system that is more crony phony capitalism than healthy competitive free enterprise. Can you say 'cost-plus, no-bid?' It is far better for the public that the money be spent within a government department where it can be more carefully controlled, and where there is recourse for diversion, mis-spending and waste. The whole 'privatization is more efficient' argument falls apart under any close examination.
Certainly the argument against paying taxes for government corruption is a valid one, but just as certainly the remedy is to attack the corruption, not the taxation. Ironically the same type of people who want to spare their buddies the burden of paying their fair share tend to be the type who want to pay off those same buddies through graft. A kind of self-fulfilling prophecy which if you think of it is hardly surprising considering that they want the government to fail.
Or at least they claim to; really what they want is a government under their control - maximizing and guaranteeing their personal profits, socializing their losses, and calling out the guard should the hoi-polloi ever get fed up with the arrangement. (In a word, fascism.)
There is no better investment that a government can make than providing the public with free quality education. A better-educated citizen will earn much more during his lifetime, eventually paying back all the taxes gone into his schooling with interest. Which a wise government will then re-invest on educating his kids.
Maybe it's high time that the wise taxpayer learned that simple lesson. It would certainly be preferred to being conned into participating in some phony protest against your own interests.
ADDENDUM: Just as one example of the COST of LOWER taxes, here's a study of what it cost Americans to NOT have universal health care. (From the National Coalition on Health Care.) Just one fact from this piece forms a conclusive argument. The US spends 17% of GDP on health care and 40% of people are either not covered or not sufficiently covered. Canada covers EVERYBODY for 9.7% of GDP.
"This used to be a hell of a good country. I can't understand what's gone wrong with it."
--George, Easy Rider
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Radiofreeeuropa
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Radiofreeeuropa6 months, 3 weeks ago
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Privatization was a disaster when Gov.Whitman did it in N.J. in the 90s. Virtually every "privatized" program was simply looted by Whitman's cronys and dumped back in the states hands in later administrations. For instance the division of motor vehicles... when handed over to private concerns to run did lower pay for the workers but had to be profitable for the new "owners" offsetting any savings from cutting workers pay. They eventually conceded they couldn't run it and the state took it back. The very idea that is somehow falsely adhered to by many Americans that sticking a layer of owners-managers-speculators who siphon funds out of an enterprise somehow will lower the cost has no merit whatsoever. Allowing an agency that issued driver's licenses, tags, etc. to be handed over to a for profit private company was insane at best. Criminal at worst.
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And it certainly did not benefit taxpayers.-
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gamahuche6 months, 3 weeks ago
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engineer6 months, 3 weeks ago
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If privatization worked so well, and the system we have works so well, we wouldn't be the bottom in health care, education, etc. It doesn't work. Yes, we do have some things which are better but we have gone downhill. Denmark, for example, has the happiest people with a lot more socialization with less privatization. Other countries have better stuff , We could get there again, but we cannot if greed is the only thing that counts
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chuck-the-canuck6 months, 3 weeks ago
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Much better to spend your tax dollars treating your citizens like family rather than spending them killing innocent people of colour on the other side of the world.
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There is a whole segment of the American population that has been voting against its own best interests for decades. Rather than continuing to let greed be your guiding principle, why not give altruism a try. -
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nostalgia6 months, 3 weeks ago
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"we wouldn't be the bottom in health care, education, etc"
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The Federal govt is the largest insurer in the country
The public schools are a govt monopoly
Want to pick some other examples because you are making the argument for the people who support privatization
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cowboygrandpa6 months, 3 weeks ago
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Conservatives love to say tax cuts benefit people ??? Well under Reagan and the Bushes you've gotten tax cuts galore for the wealthy. We are far worse off now than when they took office.
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The poverty of the poor have increased while the wealth of the wealthy have risen dramatically. Yeah keep cutting taxes pretty soon they will achieve what they have desired all along a free ride paid for by the misery of the working class.
What makes me laugh is the stupidity of the ones supporting the wealthy in this issue. They are like the idiots who get into the pyramid schemes thinking they will become rich, not realizing that that those who started it are looking for suckers who are to blind to see the truth.
It is the same thing with tax cuts, in reverse. You see a little bit up front but lose a lot in the end because their is no infrastructure to support the growth needed to sustain the economy.-
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beavith16 months, 3 weeks ago
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...The poverty of the poor have increased while the wealth of the wealthy have risen dramatically. Yeah keep cutting taxes pretty soon they will achieve what they have desired all along a free ride paid for by the misery of the working class...
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is this just you blathering or do have some proof?
so the wealthy are all thieves? so much for that american dream, huh?
thank heavens i don't look to you for moral support. -
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Endoscopy6 months, 3 weeks ago
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What a bunch of horse pucky. This is liberal garbage. In Britain and Canada wait times to see a doctor are atrocious. 6 weeks in Britain and 4 months in Canada. The system is bankrupt in Britain and they are slowly having patients self medicate. Arthritis and heart disease at present. In Canada there are not enough Doctors so 5 million have no primary care physician. Those who can afford it come to the US. Like that MP that went to California for breast cancer.
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In Britain there are diminishing numbers of elective surgery and shortly there will be none allowed. Rules of how long doctors can work in the EU are forcing less surgery on the country. Another cost savings they use is instead of the safe and effective that is used here they use the cost effective and safe method. The older a person gets the less cost effective a procedure is. Daschle wrote a book about health care for the country and Congress wants to use that as a template. He took Britain as his example. Daschle says health-care reform “will not be pain free.” Seniors should be more accepting of the conditions that come with age instead of treating them. That means the elderly will bear the brunt. So when you get old tough luck getting any treatment. The older you get the worse it will be.
So you liberals just want to see your parents and grandparents just waste away when there are treatments that would help them. That is very sad.
This country has gone many years without it and we have the best medical care in the world. The proof is that where do people travel to when they can afford it to get treatment. This idiocy that we are way down the list is biased due to the illegals etc. Our poor get free medical care if they want it.-
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Radiofreeeuropa6 months, 3 weeks ago
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I had to see a doctor in Britain the last time I was there, I waited far less time than at my doctor's office, paid nothing and received top notch care. You don't know what your talking about.
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It's such a shame that so many Americans are duped by the insurance companies and pharmaceutical giants into believing that health care would suffer without their massive profiteering. It's a load. And you'll notice these folks against a national health plan have no experience with ones that work in most developed nations.
In the U.S. only 40% of the population has healthcare coverage, at a cost of nearly 15% of it's GNP. Canada on the other hand covers their entire country for 9% of it's GNP.
Where is this "privatized" efficiency these spouters are claiming?
If 60% of the country is uncovered, they likely are getting their health needs addressed by emergency rooms which is wasteful and far more costly than actually covering them.
All I see is the usual unsubstantiated rant in opposition to public trust as opposed to private profit. MD's didn't get into medicine to serve the insurance industry. And it's remarkable to hear Americans claim they can't possibly do something as well as other nations.
As for "democrat run cities losing money" well yes, but every city is losing money regardless of who is in charge...the majority of states are in dire financial straits as well regardless of who is in the Governor's chair. With hundreds of thousands of people becoming unemployed every month the entire nation and indeed the world is running on empty, this has no relation to political parties in the US, other than they have both contributed to allowing Commercial Banking entities and Wall street to become their masters which is what has caused this collapse. -
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NoWayMan6 months, 3 weeks ago
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"In Britain and Canada wait times to see a doctor are atrocious. 6 weeks in Britain and 4 months in Canada."
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that might be true in some extreme cases, just like it is here for people on waiting lists to get certain transplants, etc.
but on an every day level, you're just full of sh*t.
my wife is a dual citizen, born and raised in canada. and what you are trying to paint as an overall truth is nothing more than a goddam lie.
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ndguy6 months, 3 weeks ago
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http://www.canada.com/calgaryherald/story.html?id=...
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The Jepp's didn't seem to find care in Canada? Weren't they covered? -
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NoWayMan6 months, 3 weeks ago
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"The US spends 17% of GDP on health care and 40% of people are either not covered or not sufficiently covered. Canada covers EVERYBODY for 9.7% of GDP."
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anyone who can just ignore this fact and still think our way is the best way is seriously in denial.
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