samboct
Posts: 1817
Joined: 1/17/2007
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angelika & the like...
Name any government program that does work.
Education? $500 Billion spent each year, and the average HS graduate when put at the hamburger counter, can't make change. How about distributing the half trillion annually to the parents of the children and letting them decide how to educate their offspring? Nah - the government knows better...
HUD? Ever been to inner city Newark, Chicago, LA, Detroit, lately?
Income Tax? Input as a temporary solution to bridge the spending gap targeting the top 1% of the population. How that work out?
War on Drugs? Just say - "No - it didn't/doesn't work".
War on Poverty? Did I miss 'V-Day'?
"No child left behind"? Come to think of it, it did work; nearly an entire generation of public school students is finishing tied for last.
SS/Medicare? Stay tuned for that bill coming due. But meanwhile, anyone planing their retirement based upon their SS income; or have plans for a healthy old age relying on Medicaid? But then, people believe the government is better at decided what to do with your money than you are.
FEMA?
Well Merc I guess I'm the like.
So let's look at the successes of the US gov't for which we have to look beyond the current administration which has been a largely unbroken string of failure. But if your history is so selective that it lumps this administrations failures and taints successes of the past- well, then their propaganda has been successful-
1910- Pure Food and Drug Act- ensuring that snake oil cures were removed from the market, sawdust was left in the woodshop, not in bread, and reduced bacterial count in slaughterhouses. Yes, it's showing its age, but the idea that gov't needed to protect consumers from rapacious capitalists proved to be successful. Note the FDA is still considered the gold standard for pharmaceuticals globally.
How about the establishment of the Security and Exchange Commission? Worked pretty well till Reagan gutted it. Stopped people from being fleeced by fly by night companies, and thus enabled the ready raising of capital- people were more willing to invest in stocks rather than in banks. This enabled the rapid and easy starting of businesses, which is one of the key strengths of this country- but it's certainly not based on deregulation.
In terms of banking- how about all the banking regulations that stopped the runs on banks prevalent before the 1900s? Tossing out these regulations or regulators has lead to the mortgage debacle today.
How about the CDC- widely regarded as one of the top government agencies globally in terms of diseases- and that's today?
How about the EPA- again, before teeth were pulled- taking the lead in removing lead from fuel and passing rigorous clean air standards that were widely emulated around the world?
How about NASA- widely regarded as the preeminent aeronautics authority globally and leading the race to put a man on the moon- a task widely regarded as impossible at the time?
Education? What enabled the US to become the manufacturing dynamo of WWII? Could it be the federally mandated requirement that all children be educated up to at least high school? In contrast- Great Britain said education up to age 12 was good enough. Germany had the best education in Europe, and look how far they got. The problem with education in this country is that we don't have enough of it- it's time for college to be the limit- not high school. China and India would love to have our problems with education- they've got two thirds illiteracy to deal with.
How about the Coast Guard with the ice watch- established after the Titanic disaster? Heard of any passenger liners running into icebergs lately?
Income tax actually worked pretty well, although in recent years its needed some tinkering to help close the gaps between rich and poor which are antithetical to a democracy. ( Don't believe me- look at most South American countries.)
How about the Berlin Airlift in '48 as a wonderful example of how the Army can respond in an emergency -confounding the Soviets without even firing a shot.
Or how about the vaccines that are widely available and have basically wiped out scourges like smallpox, cholera, polio and typhoid in this country to name a few. Widespread vaccination is a gov't program, and it wouldn't have been effective without mandatory compliance.
Merc- seems to me that you want to throw the baby out with the bathwater. Anybody that says that our gov't doesn't work has an extremely limited knowledge of history. There have been presidential administrations which have been disasters such as Grants, Garfields etc. through to Teddy Roosevelt, not to mention Reagan, Bush 1, and the current imbecile who is probably going to be recognized as the worst president yet. He has far fewer excuses- the other morons didn't have as much history to guide them- this guy's just a dolt. In the past our gov't has worked damn well. I'll wholeheartedly agree that it's not working well now, but no system of gov't is so wonderful that it will function well with imbeciles at the helm.
The people that are saying that they want to be in charge of their own health care dollars are shortsighted and heartless. Health care, like education, must be provided for even the destitute, otherwise we are the greediest and most despicable country of all. Want an example of what happens with what I suspect is what your espousing- i.e a rationed system tiered for those who can afford care and those who can't? There's a good Star Trek Voyager episode where the Dr. gets kidnapped to a planet with just such a system. Be careful what you wish for....
I could argue- and I suspect pretty convincingly- that the problems with the current health care system have come from inadequate regulation and enforcement of existing laws. But if you're convinced that the only solution is to live on an island with other misanthropes is the only solution- well, then I'd be wasting my electrons.
Sam
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RE: The Wonderful World Of Government Healthcare - 
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