Uni Health Care

[LukeMC]

Did you miss the part where I said I had no insurance myself and that most of my adult life I've had no insurance or really crappy insurance? I'm NOT rich. My parents were poor. My parents were so poor I qualified for free meals at school. My parents refused to get food stamps or any state help because my father felt it was belittling. He fed me and my mom and put clothes on my back by working . I'm not some snobby rich person. I know what it's like to not have any money and I know what it's like to work for it. The issue is not free health care. NOTHING in life is free and if anyone is looking for anything for free it's a shame!!!! The government should be looking to make health care more affordable but a free health care takes money from those who have money and gives it to those who don't. As much as I hate to sound like a Republican....I have to agree with that concept. I'm not interested in a Robin Hood type mentality here.

I came into this thread late so I wasn't aware of your previous posts. While I didn't say you were rich, I guess I made it implicit in the same way you did as you denounced poor people for being lazy and not working.

My issues here is not so much with health care as it is with the way you condemned the poor and made out like they're all dishonest fucks who don't try hard enough and have only themselves to blame. I think you're completely out of order when you do that. Perhaps your parents were lazy, or the people in your area were lazy? If this is the case I could probably SORT OF see where you got the nerve. But if your parents were honest people (like you make them out to be) working hard to support themselves and to support you, I don't know where you find it within yourself to say that those who are economically at a disadvantage are lazy and deserve what they get (or in this case don't).

Now, the health care. I'm with EvF on this one. It should be a given. I take it from your post that you're american (if not, oh well I guess). I'm under the impression that the country grants "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness". The first of these three being life would have one assume the country wants to help a brother out. Why should somebody who isn't seeing much money coming their way be any less eligable for the required- the best- health care to keep them functioning if they come to any harm? Is it because they're lazy shits who don't work hard enough to deserve health care? No, even you don't think this. Then why should we punish them? We don't make them pay a private fee at a toll booth every time they use public roads. Do you support toll boothing instead of tax-paid roads?

Fact is, Robin Hood mentality couldn't be more humane. I will give up my time and energy to help an old lady cross the street. I will give up my money to a charity who help save lives. I will spare my free time to help others revise for a test. I will pay for the bus ride home if my brother is out of cash. If I have an excess of something, I take no issue sacrificing a little of it to help other people out. Especially when I'll still have an excess of it afterwards. I take it you have no issue with this?

Now, unless you can look at a starving child and say "fuck that, your parents can sort you out", I don't see how you could support the notion that helping those in need is a ridiculous idea. As a species we thrive from helping those around us. And if those who CAN help will refuse to do so, then they are condoning the suffering of some of their own less fortunate people. Now I don't CARE whether or not you would reject a tax-funded health care system. I think as a basic human right it should be put there for you to use if you so wish. If you'd rather spit in the hand of those offering you help, then your fate is your own making. There are lots of people who not only want but need this kind of system where their basic human right to health is upheld.

Damn, imagine having to pay for life. Some inalienable right that turns out to be. At the end of the day, I think the government has every right to demand extra help from the rich so that the rest of the country can function in good health. Otherwise, why don't these rich people just fuck off to some deserted island where they can take care of the only people that matter to them- themselves? You can't expect to live in a society among social creatures and reap all the benefits of their labour but do little to help them get their sick kid treated. Reciprocal altruism. We all give and take. Those who take the most should give the most. If you can buy a million dollar mansion, you ought pay a little extra towards the society that made this possible. If you're gonna be priveleged, put something back into the country.

Or just abolish tax and let corporations run the country and let the poor people die out while those on the top of the ladder enjoy a cold drink on their yacht. Come on, we've got to look out for each other.

Apology for another long post. I don't often get to express my views on this topic.