What's Wrong with Single Payer?

[quote]orion wrote:

[quote]toolshed wrote:

[quote]BackInAction wrote:
What I don’t understand is how single payer systems exist all throughout Europe and Asia without most of the issues were talking about? These people are also some of the healthiest in the world.

Why wouldn’t it work here?[/quote]

It’s socialist man. And that’s bad, you know.

Just look at us, with entirely government paid healthcare, free education (including university level), ridicilous social benefits (I think I’ve got something like 1,500$ in schoolarschip over the last 3 years, and that is while living at home while attending a free public school. Oh and the school also gave me a laptop) and other dangerous SOCIALIST things.

Look at the results, it just doesn’t work.

Norway is not the current top-ranked nation in the UN Human Development Index. In fact we’re a totalitarian communist state, just like you will become too very soon for going down the slippery slope called SOCIALISM. Also, I will probably go to the gulag for writing this.

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You are like Dubai.

You are not extra clever just because you won in the lottery.

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The funny thing is if we did not have a socialist government at that time, the oil reserves would be privatized for some multi-national company, and we’d admittely be a whole lot poorer.

But really… we’re only one of many countries in europe that have a “socialist” approach to health care, education, etc. E.g Our neighboor Sweden seems to do pretty fine, without any lottery money.

I’m not saying socialism is a perfect approach to everything at all, of course it has major flaws. I actually voted conservative (though what is conservative over here is far more “liberal” than your democrats) last election.

It’s just from reading these forums, I get the impression that a lot of Americans seem to have an extreme mistrust in their authorities, and think that the government is a purely evil institution that will do everything it can to aquire more power and abuse it. That’s not true, take a look around you.

[quote]toolshed wrote:
<<< It’s just from reading these forums, I get the impression that a lot of Americans seem to have an extreme mistrust in their authorities, and think that the government is a purely evil institution that will do everything it can to aquire more power and abuse it. That’s not true, take a look around you. [/quote]
Americans aren’t satisfied with being an irrelevant spot on the world map. And yes, we were founded on the mistrust of people in power and that philosophy catapulted us from thirteen colonies to the most successful, powerful, prosperous and dare I say it, progressive (the good way), nation in the whole of human history over the course of a few generations.

See, we have very high standards… or at least we did. We don’t… or at least we didn’t, view mere existence without disaster as success.

Take a look around you for evidence of benevolent governments? You’d have to be from Norway to make a statement like that.

Well, Push…

I understand that Norway is cold (but beautiful…)

And what exactly is a “Fjord”???

Mufasa

[quote]Mufasa wrote:
And what exactly is a “Fjord”???[/quote]

Henry’s Norwegian first cousin.

This is a fjord. High mountains right into the sea, creating canals a bit into the country.

There is lots of beauty here, but it can also get pretty cold in the winter… This winter we had -34 F for a week. Pretty cold.