The Day after Tomorrow

Post Reply New Topic

banana republic, here we come.

As I asked in the other thread:

If someone can't afford to stay competitive, why do they deserve to compete?

If someone can't afford to keep working, why do they deserve to work?

If someone can't afford to stay healthy, why do they deserve to stay healthy?

If someone can't afford to stay alive, why do they deserve to live?

You get what you pay for. If you can't afford to pay, well... I suppose it's polite to pretend that it was nice knowing you, but you aren't much use anymore, are you?


And if you disagree with all of the above statements, great! Politics takes money. If someone can't afford a lobbyist, why do they deserve to have an opinion?

This kind of stuff is what scares me

http://cnsnews.com/news/article/when-as ... -insurance

Here you have a list of countries and its total health expenditure (PPP) per capita:

1 United States 7,960
2 Norway 5,352
3 Switzerland 5,144
4 Netherlands 4,914
5 Luxembourg 4,808
6 Canada 4,363
7 Denmark 4,348
8 Austria 4,289
9 Germany 4,218
10 France 3,978
11 Belgium 3,946
12 Ireland 3,781
13 Sweden 3,722
14 Iceland 3,538
15 Australia 3,445 (2008)
16 United Kingdom 3,487
17 Finland 3,226
18 Italy 3,137
19 Spain 3,067
20 Japan 2,878 (2008)

US sanitary system is the most expensive in the world. By far.

And here you have the infant mortality rate, that is usually considered the best sanitary system indicator:

1 Monaco 1.80
2 Japan 2.21
4 Singapore 2.31
3 Bermuda 2.47
5 Sweden 2.74
6 Hong Kong 2.90
7 Macau 3.17
8 Iceland 3.18
9 Italy 3.36
10 Spain 3.37
11 France 3.37
12 Finland 3.40
13 Anguilla 3.44
14 Norway 3.50
15 Germany 3.51
16 Guernsey 3.52
17 Malta 3.65
18 Czech Republic 3.70
19 Netherlands 3.73
20 Andorra 3.76
21 Ireland 3.81
22 Jersey 3.94
23 Switzerland 4.03
24 Israel 4.07
25 South Korea 4.08
26 Slovenia 4.12
27 Denmark 4.19
28 Austria 4.26
29 Isle of Man 4.27
30 Belgium 4.28
31 Luxembourg 4.39
32 Liechtenstein 4.39
33 European Union 4.49
34 Australia 4.55
35 United Kingdom 4.56
36 Portugal 4.60
37 Wallis and Futuna 4.61
38 San Marino 4.65
39 New Zealand 4.72
40 Cuba 4.83
41 Canada 4.85
42 French Polynesia 4.88
43 Greece 4.92
44 Taiwan 5.10
45 Hungary 5.24
46 New Caledonia 5.62
47 Northern Mariana Islands 5.69
48 Faroe Islands 5.94
49 United States 5.98
50 Croatia 6.06

I'm sorry it's such a long list, but US don't appear until 49th position.

While US is very respected in many areas (as, for example, technological development), its sanitary system is considered, in general, as a big and unefficient failure. When it comes to health, state systems are much cheaper and more efficient. What Obama is trying to do saves money.

But anyway, US is sending its best indutry to Asia while is gladly keeping unefficient and expensive systems. And lately, it's leaving Religion to enter Science classes. It's really a pity that such a empire is so willing to hand World's Leadership to China so easily. In the future, it's likely that US won't have much money neither power. But at least they'll have churches.

Last edited by Greb on 28 Jun 2012, 9:06 am, edited 1 time in total.

So what? No one who matters wants to save money. They want poor and disabled people to die, so that workers will be terrified of becoming poor or disabled.

Nope. It's not about bad people wanting innocents to die. Let's be adults. Health systems are very sensitive to corruption (this huge expense US do in health is going somewhere -or somebody-, because it's clear that it doesn't go to give the best health system in the world. Not at all). It's about money, it's about corruption, it's about too many interests against the changes Obama is trying to do. And public opinion is very easy to handle. You know the rule: the candidate with more money wins the election (I think this has been fulfilled in almost every election until now).

And this is going to be the big tragedy in the US fall: US is going to fall because the US citizens choices. This country had it all to keep the big power. All, except a sensible population.

So today was the day that the US was sold to insurance companies.

Hm, it's passed the SC. This was the outcome most legal experts predicted in the early days. And most judges who ruled supported it. But the two conservative judges who opposed it fanned the fire and we are where we are.

Passed as a tax. Yup. You can't argue with the government ability to tax. Not without losing an arm.

How can it be a 'tax' when the money goes to private insurance companies? What happens when one doesn't pay this 'tax'? When you don't pay other taxes they send people with guns to your house and lock you in a rape cage.

All in all, this only proves that the federal government will always rule that the federal government has unlimited power. The only solution is to dismantle it.

The mandate itself is not a mandate, it's a fine / fee or tax. They don't make you do a thing, just financially penalize you.

You can not pay it. They'll take it from your tax returns and cannot pursue you legally or criminally. That's in the law. It would take some effort on your taxes but you could dodge it for a long time. But it's set up as a stick. The carrot is that subsidized insurance will be cheaper.

How is that optional? You pay it or they'll take it. That isn't a choice at all. It's not a tax if it the money is sent to the private insurance companies.

It won't be cheaper at all. The prices will keep going up at the same rate if not much quicker now that the liability of paying for people with preexisting conditions has been put completely on the shoulders of young people and the poor.

What states need to do is reapproach nullification. The I doubt the federal government nowadays has the gall of Andrew Jackson.

Well, feel free to argue with the SC. I'm just parsing what I read. And the SC decided to accept the fine as a tax and won't rule against taxation. That's a primary function of Congress.

The money taken as fees likely goes to many places. Helping to pay for the medicaid expansion, subsidizing insurance for others, etc.

Of course. Nobody actually supports this law and nobody in good faith can actually defend this monstrosity. Good thing Big Money has fielded a candidate capable of holding Obama's feet to the fire on this issue... Oh wait. They backed the guy who inspired the legislation in the first place. What a farce, corporations run this country and the federal government has unlimited power. We are never given a real choice, there will never be any change for the better with these dictators in power.

The SC is full of it. The SC has been proven time and time again to be primarily a political body rather than an impartial arbitrator. The difference between this political body and congress is that there is no accountability at all with the SC. The system of checks and balances is completely and irreversibly broken. They're appointed by a branch of the federal government, confirmed by the other, and ultimately they side with the federal government not the people not the states.

How is the government going to force private insurance companies to charge less?

If I had a product, and the government mandated that everyone must buy it, I would feel free to charge as much as I wanted. Suck every spare nickel from people. And that is what the insurance companies will now do.

There are a couple theories on the matter. That it was intentionally created legislation to create a crisis that will proceed an even bigger power grab by the federal government or that they don't care what effects their law will have on the populace and are only beholden to their corporate masters.

One thing is a for sure, we will all be paying a lot more for health insurance.