It’s interesting to hear the European perspective!
I always wondered if Socialism had something to do with land ownership, or like “payback” for feudalism or something.
Not to support Obama Care, but isn’t it more like a “Voucher Program” than socialised medicine?
This is why we can’t have nice debates on the internet. If it isn’t some European elitist calling Americans dumb culture-less idiots who didn’t have racial equality until the 60’s, it’s American’s ranting about how Europeans are freedom hating serfs who all love big brother.
We gave you Thomas Pain, the revolutionary who argued for a universal healthcare system, universal income and state funded burials, land redistribution and reparations.
Was he one of the suckers who wanted to trade liberty for security?
Yes the united states is much larger, so has more tax revenue from the large population. Yes there are more people, but that equals more tax coming in to fund universal healthcare.
Would you support a universal healthcare by state system? Couldn’t it be done constitutionally through individual states taking it up using state funding? Why do you need to see the EU do it for all Europe, all of western europe has universal healthcare, we just do it by national service.
we can do it for x million by taxing x million, you can do it for y million by taxing y million. Why do you think population size makes it harder? If you have the same tax rates, you get more tax the more population you have so funding remains the same proposition.
I take it you wouldn’t argue the U.S couldn’t have a large publicly funded Military like the U.K because it is much bigger so it couldn’t work on a scale the size of the U.S? Of course that would be silly because the U.S spends 1000x more than the UK does and has a way mightier military than the UK, because there are 300 million or so Americans paying taxes to fund it.
If the U.S can afford to support a military expenditure that is bigger than all other nations put together, surely that huge taxable population can fund a universal healthcare system.
They are smaller but have less tax revenue to fund healthcare. The U.S is bigger so has to provide service to more but has more tax revenue to fund the medical care for more people.
More people is irrelevant because that means there are more people to tax.
Thanks for pointing out a typo, how nice 
As a man born in the shade of his statue, I can assure you it was an accident.
Why do so many American’s care that others have an opinion? Why so triggered? Have I been anything but respectful to the U.S, American society and its armed forces in this thread?
Why the threads by Americans on here about Germany and Angela Merkel, why the threads about the EU by Americans? Could it be because they were interested in world affairs and politics?
America is the only superpower in the world since it took over the reigns from churchill and then beat the USSR. It is going to be talked about by the other 6.7 billion people on the globe.
Escaping totalitarianism by establishing a republic where only white rich landowning males could vote, blacks were enslaved. Who are you kidding, The U.S and Europe were all totalitarian, yet Europe seemed to get round to ending slavery and implementing universal suffrage earlier. Does that make Europe less totalitarian?
America had points on their side too, no Monarchy, no state church. However both were totalitarian. Both deserve respect for their historic and contemporary achievements.
Agree or can’t you bring yourself to say that?
Because as others have said, the cultural and economic evolution of America has been fundamentally different than in Europe to a large enough degree to account for the differences.
However in the next 20 years, America will probably see universal healthcare, poll after poll indcates a majority is in favour now:
Not necessarily. Forbes had a piece just the other day pointing out that a very small percentage of Americans actually pay income tax. That also ignores other factors such as; a larger population means a greater number of people (not %, but in actual #'s) will be unemployed, a greater number of people will not pay for their healthcare, a greater number of people will need healthcare, a greater number of people will need more expensive treatment options, etc… So while yes, intuitively, you would expect more people = more tax revenue = universal care affordability, the realtiy is the situation is far more complex than that.
We also need to consider that the U.S. spends far more on other areas such as defense, healthcare R&D, etc…
I personally would not, but that is up to each individual state. That is one of the benefits of our system of governance. This, as far as I’m concerned, fall squarely under the 10th amendment,.
At the state level sure. It could be done federal too, but it would take an amendment.
Because I already pay upwards of 40% of my income to various governments within the United States and I’m not interested in just hoping it works while that percentage goes up.
That’s too simplistic an economic view for me. It’s just not that simple.
For the the factors I’ve already mentioned above. More healthcare means more resources, more doctors, more hospitals, more administrations, more bureaucracy, etc… We are around $18 Trillion in debt and have been running a deficit for 10+ years. Adding more to the these figures is not a smart move imo.
Again, not necessarily.
The government has constitutional authority to maintain a standing armed forces through tax dollars. It does not have the authority, at this time, to maintain a universal healthcare system through tax dollars.
You are also comparing apples to oranges here. Spending on our military is a large part of the budget, but it pails in comparison to other social programs such as social security, medicare, and medicaid. A universal healthcare system would fit more so with the later.
See above. Almost half of U.S. households pay zero income tax.
In fact many of the bottom earners actually get money back that isn’t even theirs. So again, the situation is more complex than you are making it out to be.
Again, different situations. We already spend more on healthcare than any other budget item.
Yes, that slavery, that we started and you guys closed the door on. Thats the point, claiming everyone in Europe who loved freedom left for America, when both practised slavery but Europe finished it way earlier, is double speak.