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Can you see what I'm doing? I'm playing the worlds smallest violin, just for you.
Income inequality is a meaningless red herring. The important thing is whether one's standard of living has improved over time. And for the vast majority it has.
Income inequality is a meaningless red herring. The important thing is whether one's standard of living has improved over time. And for the vast majority it has.
Ooohhhh...........that's it.
Have wage increases kept pace with inflation and costs, so that Americans standard of living is affordable, or are Americans more in debt than they have ever been? Is financial solvency part of your equation?
I don't get why any American not in the a1% would be against Universal Healthcare since every other first world nation has it and so do some third world nations.
Why do you like a system where a private ambulance can refuse to transport you to the hospital unless you pay first.
Why do you think it's fine for insulin which costs $5 to make to be sold for $500?
Why do you think it's fair for a person to have an illness and need treatment and you go from being charged $1000 a month with a $200 copay to a surprise $20K charge and a $4K copay and then next month calling and being told that they can't tell you how much it will cost ahead of time
And why do you fight so hard and protect billionaires to keep getting richer while many are one paycheck away or one fire or tornado away from being homeless? or going bankrupt from a medical bill or not being able to pay for treatment and end up dead.
When did you stop beating your wife, girlfriend significant other?
I don't get why any American not in the a1% would be against Universal Healthcare since every other first world nation has it and so do some third world nations.
A huge chunk of us have a bad habit of voting as if we're one day going to be in the 1%. While that's quite the pipe dream, the probability of that happening is, well, the math has already been done for you.
Once you reach that level of financial security, you're already beyond the benefits lower income brackets can vote themselves. I don't have any vendetta against billionaires, or wish to tax them at 90%, but I don't think we need to vote any additional help to those levels.
Vote for yourself, and yourself only. Don't vote for your neighbor, your best friend, your spouse, or the millionaire you think you'll be in 10 years. Don't be guilt tripped into voting for "ethics" you don't believe in, either. Vote for you, as you stand right now.
I completely agree with the first paragraph, even though I've never personally succumbed to that habit, heh.
Remember the recurring 'Joe the Plumber' cameos during the McCain/Palin campaign in 2008? His supposed upward mobility was the narrative there--one day he's going to own his own plumbing company! Just as 90% of drivers think they're above average, far more than 1% of Americans think they're destined to one day be in the 1%--and while more than 1% will eventually be in that 1% at some point, due to churn of the segment of society that constitutes the 1%, the 'failure rate' here has to be at least as high as the small business failure rate, which itself is far higher than most people realize.
It doesn't have to be theft to be morally objectionable. To riff off his insulin example, remember the infamous Martin Shkreli's purchase of a patent for a rare cancer drug, which he then jacked up the price of by 3000% or whatever it was? That's not theft, but it is predatory capitalism. Same as the insulin example and plenty of others one could offer.
That Republicans want to protect billionaires is just another Democrat lie.
That the Republican political leadership want to protect billionaires like the Koch brothers and other major Republican political donors is a universal TRUTH.
That the Republican political leadership want to protect billionaires like the Koch brothers and other major Republican political donors is a universal TRUTH.
That is of course true since Koch brothers and other conservatives billionaires essentially finance Conservative movements.
But if we are being objective, Democrats were also pretty reluctant to radically increase taxes on billionaires. Sure they raised a top marginal rate during Obama and Clinton years by a few percentage points. That action raised more revenue and was helpful. But they never even came close to increasing long term Capital Gains tax and other loopholes that really make top 1% rich. Doing so would've probably antagonized rich Democratic patrons in Finance and Technology.
I don't get why any American not in the a1% would be against Universal Healthcare since every other first world nation has it and so do some third world nations.
Why do you like a system where a private ambulance can refuse to transport you to the hospital unless you pay first.
Why do you think it's fine for insulin which costs $5 to make to be sold for $500?
Why do you think it's fair for a person to have an illness and need treatment and you go from being charged $1000 a month with a $200 copay to a surprise $20K charge and a $4K copay and then next month calling and being told that they can't tell you how much it will cost ahead of time
And why do you fight so hard and protect billionaires to keep getting richer while many are one paycheck away or one fire or tornado away from being homeless? or going bankrupt from a medical bill or not being able to pay for treatment and end up dead.
We (Americans) have fallen for the lie that universal healthcare will be more expensive than the way things are now, even though universal healthcare would remove the profiteers that cause healthcare to be so expensive in the first place. We are our own worst enemies because we listen to the unnecessary middlemen.
Last edited by Summer'sBreeze; 10-31-2019 at 10:28 AM..
OP, you won't make any inroads here because most of the U.S. is brainwashed by their perceived "superiority".
I agree with all your points, and the whole thing is only getting worse. Because the U.S. health plan is entrenched in "for profit" layers, it will never change. There is too much money involved and too many layers of profit being made. Though UHC is a right in almost every other country, it will never happen in the U.S.
Where I live, the poorest people get health care. No one has to worry about it, no one is bankrupted. Our plan is $80 a month for us both, with no co-pays, no deductibles, no absurd "network".
The U.S. is becoming (or already is) an oligarchy and voters continually vote against their own best interests.
The brainwashing has been very successful. Americans don't even want to HEAR about what the rest of the world does successfully. Hands over ears: "Lalalalala".
Yes, there are free-loaders everywhere, but that is a separate issue and not associated with health care. Lack of jobs and opportunities is a whole other issue that is being ignored also.
Gov't workers are among the few with secure jobs and health care and pensions, so they are fine with the status quo. After all, "why can't everyone be a gov't worker"? Who needs janitors or their ilk? That strata of society doesn't "need" health care, a living wage or retirement!
Sand&Salt explains the situation very well.
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Before I answer your loaded question...
