Obama care

[Darth]

Either a government needs to be completely hands off (and if they fail, they fail) or they need to provide guarantees but at the cost of close scrutiny. Corporate welfare, often characterized by socialized risk, privatized profit, is the worst of both worlds.

You and I seem to be in agreement on that point.

Absolutely =D. And I'm guessing you know that I would opt for the first option (and you the second), this would make for an excellent debate topic. The situation you currently find yourself in is one neither of us would opt for.

Just a question based on your post (not really related to healthcare), what then are your thoughts on public sector unions? Is there still a balance as with in the private sector, do you think?

Unions and government regulation can also be destructive to the economy if they grow too powerful as well but that's not the problem we currently face

(On government regulation) I would argue that it's certainly not helping (though as you say it's not the cause of the current situation, unless we mean the socialisation of the risk/losses). The corporatism and out of control government spending left you in a very precarious situation. The regulations retained, and created, by corporatists are not to be trusted, they help company/industry X by intentionally throwing company/industry Y under a bus, further harming the economy which is the last thing you want to do, particularly now. Unions (private ones), meh, that's between the business and the group of people bargaining, they are only a problem when they take the other route and start writing/influencing government regulations imo. The tax burden and the tax compliance burden (you need to pay to be able to navigate the thousands of pages of tax rules) are further kicking businesses while they are down imo. With europe being a basket case I would say that you can't afford to have those nonsense regulations.

How would you go about the massive stimulus? Or, wanna start a economy based new thread?

What did you learn creed?

Back to healthcare: How then would you guys go about dealing with those who are unhealthy due to their own actions and those who were injured when engaging in reckless activities (the obese, the smokers, the daredevils, and the guys who exercise their right not to wear a seatbelt and end up flying through a windscreen), under socialised medicine?