The USA (the poor, healthcare, the government) (Chicago, money, billion)
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I completely agree with Corkster. I would like to see people rise above social Darwinism but I doubt it will happen. In America, helping people and caring about how we move as a country has no meaning. I honestly am too young to think of when this happened, perhaps Nixon, but definitely after WWII.
By individualising everything, we enable ourselvevs to be bought off. Now insteadd of being self sustaining like you couold argue we were in the 50s (grow and manufacture everything right here) we are dependent on other countries to manufacture our goods and grow our food. We create resentful people in sweatshops far away who have abundant resources they can't touch because they are bought out by people thousands of miles away. As a result we create a nice recruiting population for terrorists too.
If we really want to survive into the next century, generosity is the only way. Generosity and noninterventionist policies. Assist countries by helping them to grow more food, not invading them for their oil. Show them how to vaccinate themselves and treat pandemics, not wait for the free market to fix things. Perhaps if we are constantly benevolent to people they will have few reasons to fly planes into buildings.
This includes our own citizens. Everyone can contribute to society and be made to feel important and we should work towards that goal. If someone feels important he's less likely to blow up buildings or walk into schools shooting people.
Perhaps its a dark way of looking at it but I think of social programs as a way of letting people who have had a hard time get back on their feet and feel like they're being heard instead of desperation. It makes me feel better.
Socialized medicine... well I pay for insurance, if health care was properly socialized I wouldn't need insurance. About half the people that apply to medical school aren't accepted, if we were training them, there would be no doctor shortage I bet and you could get many things taken care of right away.
If God blessed you with a higher intelligence and work ethic, he probably meant for you to do something good for the world, not exploit others and make a bunch of money.
I always find it interesting to read anothers perspective on the USA.
It is funny that what they find wonderful about their own country is the 'free' stuff.
Like 'free' healthcare,it is of course NOT free but paid for by someone else.
I also find it interesting how many people from the USA want the same thing here and it has crossed my mind that perhaps these people should look into finding another nation more to their liking,there is afterall a whole world out there.
I came from half a world away and would like the USA to NOT turn into a welfare state.
'free' healthcare,it is of course NOT free but paid for by someone else.
The basis problem you're having is no one has said national universal healthcare is free.
You call it 'free health care' but it's not free,
and by just the same kind of mistaken assumption on your part, our private health care is not paid for by you.
Our present system is paid in a large part by the government, funded through taxes. What you pay is only another co-pay of the system.
Our present system costs all Americans more than a national universal health care system would cost and we would get better health care to boot.
But no, there's people like you who have no notion of how the world actually operates, but you will spout rhetoric programmed into you to ensure the corporations taking your money can continue their fraud.
There was a bit of valid info in your piece though, ....it's when you said:
I always find it interesting to read anothers perspective on the USA.
It is funny that what they find wonderful about their own country is the 'free' stuff.
Like 'free' healthcare,it is of course NOT free but paid for by someone else.
I also find it interesting how many people from the USA want the same thing here and it has crossed my mind that perhaps these people should look into finding another nation more to their liking,there is afterall a whole world out there.
I came from half a world away and would like the USA to NOT turn into a welfare state.
"Love it or leave it" is in no way part of the American tradition, no matter how many times you read it on bumper stickers. We are a nation founded on "Love it or change it", or perhaps more realistically, "Love it or move for change and have your viewpoints meshed with other viewpoints until you eventually reach a consensus". Messy, but I enjoy it.
I see no reason I should leave a country because I disagree with the way it is run. Least of all a country that, ostensibly, cares what its citizens think.
Thanks for your perspective, Corkonian. I value it.
The basis problem you're having is no one has said national universal healthcare is free.
You call it 'free health care' but it's not free,
and by just the same kind of mistaken assumption on your part, our private health care is not paid for by you.
Our present system is paid in a large part by the government, funded through taxes. What you pay is only another co-pay of the system.
Our present system costs all Americans more than a national universal health care system would cost and we would get better health care to boot.
But no, there's people like you who have no notion of how the world actually operates, but you will spout rhetoric programmed into you to ensure the corporations taking your money can continue their fraud.
There was a bit of valid info in your piece though, ....it's when you said:
Let me know if you ever arrive....
The "free" thing is the spin machine at work. They call it free. It becomes dominant. Supporters of nationalized health care pick it up because its in the public lexicon. Then the anti-healthcare guys go "NO! IT ISN'T FREE!!! THAT GUY JUST SAID IT WAS FREE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YOU HAVE TO PAY FOR YOURS AND HE WANTS HIS FOR FREEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
Corkonian, thank you for your views. You are so correct in what you say about our country. The health care here is a mess. The religious christian right will accept no other views except their own, and the corporations and the rich certainly do look down upon those who do not have what they do.
Many in this country have lost what used to be one of the greatest things about the people of this country "empathy".
We have become hardened,mean and greedy.
It's sad but, I believe all is not lost. As you can read from the posts there are still a great many who still care and hopefully we can once again become a nation the rest of the world looks up.
I'd love to have left the US a long time ago but other countries have strict standards on whom they let in. You usually have to have an employer sponsoring you before you leave, or a spouse or fiancee. "Love it or leave it" doesn't work for everybody.
Our Irish friend has quite well pointed out the problems with the US as he seets it, and I partly agree. We are a country deeply suspicious of the government and each other. Nobody gives a crap about anybody else in the US, there isn't any social solidarity like there is over in Europe. We are patriotic but that patriotism ends at God and the Flag it would seem. I think in the end this suspicion comes down to our insularity as a nation, and our profoundly conservative Protestant religiosity, particularly the Anabaptist (eg, Calvanist) variety which stresses the fallen, corrupt nature of human beings to the point that it sees good in no one. In the modern form the average "Evangelical" is really just a Cargo Cultist or Heaven's Gate nut, little different- they both are waiting for the mother ship to come and pick them up from their mortal coil. Combine it with a smattering of our ignorant hillbilly past, and you have a nation of anti-intellectuals that always has been suspicious of unions and workers rights as a "godless commie" plot, and social justice as an impediment to getting people to suckle at the teat of the church of Fundamentalism, or as they see it, doing time here on Earth for Jesus to get pie in the sky when you die.
Corkonian, thank you for your views. You are so correct in what you say about our country. The health care here is a mess. The religious christian right will accept no other views except their own, and the corporations and the rich certainly do look down upon those who do not have what they do.
Many in this country have lost what used to be one of the greatest things about the people of this country "empathy".
We have become hardened,mean and greedy.
It's sad but, I believe all is not lost. As you can read from the posts there are still a great many who still care and hopefully we can once again become a nation the rest of the world looks up.
I dont think we will ever be that nation again and it makes me sad, I think with Bush getting re-appointed in 04 that just cemented the rich and powerful have control and nothing will change that
America was founded on great principles, perhaps the greatest country in the world, it is all over, the evil capitalist control the country now, like it or get the **** out
Combine it with a smattering of our ignorant hillbilly past,
The poor, rural whites are ignorant hillbillies. The inner city blacks are "disenfranchised". Funny how stereotypical most liberals are about Christians and rural citizens. They look down on us the same way the complain that the Christian, rural citizens look down on the poor and minorities. But the truth is that the media loves to run with negative stories, period. You see all these stories of criminals that have infiltrated churches and done evil works, then it is directly associated with all churches. You see an intolerant person with a rural accent, so now all rural accents are a sign of intolerance.
In the mean time, for every 1 church that you hear something negative happening at, there are 2 dozen who are leading food drives, providing clothing, shelter, and transportation for the poor and downtrodden. For every one ignorant person with a southern accent who hates minorities, there are 2 dozen that are simply down to earth folks who are very easy going and treat all people with kindness.
And yes, I realize too, that for every die hard liberal out there that spouts off constantly about hillbillies and Christians being terrible, there is at least 1 or 2 that realize that is just a stereotype and that bad people come from ALL backgrounds.
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