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I don't have anything against paying taxes. I do think the current tax system is totally unfair because it heavily favors the poor. Personally, I would like to do away with income tax and replace it with a consumption based tax like Fair Tax.
Back to your argument. When a baby is born with Dawn's syndrome. Who should be responsible? Taxpayers or the parents? If you say taxpayers, then my question to you is why the government should be responsible for YOUR child?
I believe that the government should provide medical insurance for all...So my answer would be the government...But I believe that it should provide it for every citizen. I believe that is the morally and financially smart thing to do. Literally every single example of single payer medicine is provides for comparable metrics and a lower dollar amount per citizen. On top of that the tax wedge in this country is too low. Our tax rate needs to be higher on everyone...not just the wealthy.
I believe that the government should provide medical insurance for all...So my answer would be the government...But I believe that it should provide it for every citizen. I believe that is the morally and financially smart thing to do. Literally every single example of single payer medicine is provides for comparable metrics and a lower dollar amount per citizen. On top of that the tax wedge in this country is too low. Our tax rate needs to be higher on everyone...not just the wealthy.
Prove it.
Show me that the costs of services are lower. Service by service. Show which ones are less and which ones are more.
Are you asking for the specific dollar amount? My wife and I donate 5% to the food bank and 5% to the United Way, plus we volunteer for one hour twice a week (Tuesday and Thursday) at the food bank.
I volunteer between 3-5 hours a month (one saturday a month) to the ASPCA in my town as well...usually no money for them though.
I believe that the government should provide medical insurance for all...So my answer would be the government...But I believe that it should provide it for every citizen. I believe that is the morally and financially smart thing to do. Literally every single example of single payer medicine is provides for comparable metrics and a lower dollar amount per citizen. On top of that the tax wedge in this country is too low. Our tax rate needs to be higher on everyone...not just the wealthy.
I do believe that medical insurance should be there for all citizens but not for the illegals or their children.
However, I also believe there should be limits. For example, if you know your baby will have Dawn syndrome, and you decide to have the baby, then all cost is on you. Another example would be that you know smoking is bad and you continue to smoke, then any illness caused by smoking would be on you and should not be covered by the insurance.
Last edited by lifeexplorer; 10-22-2013 at 11:50 AM..
This advice is to people with a large NUMBER of debts. For them, the highest interest rate is almost ALWAYS the the smallest. Even if it isn't, it's usually close to it. The reason most people look for advice... Is that they're barely making ends meet. Most of them have very minimal, if any, discretionary cash flow. So, the plan (which you don't understand, because you turned off the channel immediately) is to free up your monthly cash flow as fast as possible. You CAN'T pay off debts faster if you have no cash flow. The best rule is to pay the smallest, so you can improve your cash flow, so you CAN MAKE PROGRESS on the rest, instead of just paying interest.
You seem to be completely ignoring WHO the advice is given to and what circumstances they are in. AND, if you'd bothered to educate yourself instead of looking for reasons to condemn someone, you'd know that Ramsey always teaches people how to do basic financial analysis. Which leads people to do what WHAT MAKES SENSE rather than just blindly following someone.
I've been through his Financial Peace University, and there's NOTHING in it that isn't true. Further, it's wise, prudent, and it works. The reason it works, is that Ramsey's advice is geared to work 'for humans' and not computers. We're not computers, we're complex people, and we need both motivation and hope, in order to stick to a plan of long-term delayed gratification to meet a goal.
Any economist can tell you that economics is the study of human behavior, not just equations and complex theories. What makes people successful vs what makes them failures is rarely math skills, it's how you think and how you make decisions. Ramsey's advice is geared to reach and provide meaningful and workable strategies. You pay off the SMALLEST first, because that's the fastest means of getting a reward. It also frees up cash flow (and most of his time is spent on emphasizing how to think about spending and priorities), so that you don't live at high risk for small events, such as a broken car transmission.
It is well thought out and it works for real humans.
If you are going to give someone advice, why wouldn't you give them advice that helps them the most financially? You don't have to be a 'computer' to list your debts and pay the highest interest rate first. Nothing about Ramsey's approach is rewarding. Rewarding is seeing that you have paid tens of thousands of dollars less in interest than you would with his approach.
If I paid money to take his class and then found out that there was a way I could have saved more on interest payments by not following his approach, I would think I just got scammed, not that I learned anything meaningful.
I do believe that medical insurance should be there for all citizens but not for the illegals or their children.
However, I also believe there should be limits. For example, if you know your baby will have Dawn syndrome, and you decide to have the baby, then all cost is on you. Another example would be that you know smoking is bad and you continue to smoke, then any illness caused by smoking would be on you and should not be covered by the insurance.
Illegals and their children (who are mostly legal) are residents and practically permanent. Not providing health care simply drives them to the emergency room and screws up the system. Cheaper and better to simply include them if we are not willing to expel them.
Down's syndrome and such gets into the government or insurance company playing God. There is no obvious formula. Charging for smoking is about as far as we should go.
I might even argue that there should be no charge or certainly no age or location differential. That alone could cut the overall cost by a large percentage and could well provide the needed handles to control cost.
Show me that the costs of services are lower. Service by service. Show which ones are less and which ones are more.
I was just getting ready to post the link that IVOC posted below.
I'm going to assume you probably either won't click or won't comprehend the graphs so I'll take the liberty to spell a few of the big ones out.
Bypass Surgery- US 73,420. UK- 14,117
Angioplasty- US 28,182. UK- 14,336
Hip Replacement-US 40,364. UK-11,889
Knee Replacement- US 25,637 UK-7833
Appendectomy-US 13,851. UK 3408
Hospital cost per day--US: 4287 Spain 476
MRI: US-1121 UK 335 Spain 230
Nexium: US 202 UK 32 Spain 18
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