Americans don't pay enough taxes

Okay. None of the items mentioned "keep me up at night" - except maybe the prospect that socialists are going to successfully force them on us.

1) Health care in the United States is the best in the world, despite what you and/or Michael Moore say.

2) Nothing is free. Somebody is paying for your "free" child care. Furthermore, it has been my experience that goods and services are generally worth what one pays for them. As far as I am concerned "free child care" equates to "turn your child over to the state for indoctrination". Remember how well that worked in Germany in the 1930s?

3) Isn't it wonderful that a government can be so "generous" with other people's money?

4) I can't argue with you there. Our higher-education system is currently a joke. I blame it not just on colleges jacking up tuition prices because of the easy availability of student loans, but also on moronic leftists who persist in claiming the "everyone should go to college". The fact is, not everyone is cut out for college.

With that said, I will disagree with you until the day I die that widespread socialism is "worth it". What is "worth it" is having a government that provides equality of opportunity, without trying to assure equality of outcome.

When people are not required to bear the consequences of their own decisions (good or bad) they become dependent on the government. That is exactly what tyrants want, and tyranny is always the end result when a people are [successfully] encouraged to be dependent upon the "free" things given them by their "benevolent" government.

The type of welfare system you have in many European countries can "work" as long as you have an ethnically and culturally homogeneous society with a strong work ethic (i.e. where it's considered shameful to live as a parasite).

This was true in Germany and the Scandinavian countries until recently, as well as in Switzerland (which has an Obamacare-like mandatory private health insurance rather than a single-payer system).

As soon as you have a massive influx of foreigners with no sense of duty to the country or society, the system breaks down. The "social contract" where people agreed to work and pay taxes for state-sponsored social services becomes a system milked by immigrants. Then the native population follows the example, thinking "if they're parasites, I can be a parasite too."

This, fundamentally, is why the European social welfare system will collapse and why it would never work in the United States.

Well, the ethnically homogenous bit is not quite correct -- there were and are white welfare wasters in the UK, Germany, New Zealand and Australia

But on culturally homogenous and work ethic you are correct.

To be fair to the Germans, the majority of the Turkish "guest workers" they took in the 70s have imbibed the German work ethic

You can't include Switzerland in your ethnically homogenous society as that it isn't. Work-ethic wise yes, but ethnic, no

As to the final part you wrote about things breaking down, you aren't correct about all European countries - in Denmark for instance, immigrants welfare opportunities are cut heavily, so the loafers move on quickly to Sweden. Even Germany isn't that bad and Switzerland gives you welfare only if you have a history of putting money into the system

Finally, the "European social welfare system" doesn't exist - each nation's implementation is completely different from the other

You can't include Switzerland in your ethnically homogenous society as that it isn't. Work-ethic wise yes, but ethnic, no

I meant homogeneous in the sense of not being overrun by Middle Eastern and African people.

Finally, the "European social welfare system" doesn't exist - each nation's implementation is completely different from the other

Yes, they are different - as I pointed out, Switzerland relies on laws requiring the purchase of private health insurance as opposed to a single-payer system in most of Europe (while the UK has a nationally run health system, vs. private providers paid by state-sponsored insurance in most but not all of western Europe).

However, the catch-all term "European welfare system" does make sense because those differences are obscured when compared to the US, in the sense that most Europeans have accepted paying higher taxes in exchange for more social services, while the US has (well, until fairly recently) generally opted for fewer social services in return for less government and lower taxes.

#1. I don't give a rats @$$ what fatty Moore thinks or says. The last I ever saw of him on telly was back in 2004 when he was on some interview or the order telling folks not to vote Bush (I remember I had a great car tag - W42K4)

And I didn't say the USA doesn't have the best healthcare money can buy - my statement was America spends too much on health for far lower levels of service - the U.S. has some of the finest physicians and medical facilities in the world. It has the best bleeding edge research and facilities. But I am talking about the overall medical care and payment structure -- that is a mess and Obamacare made it worse. while America has some of the best medical providers in the world, the overall system lacks the structure and clarity to allow its citizens to effectively take advantage of this fact.

I don't know the solution, but I can tell you that the German system works pretty well -- however, as I said above, this can't be picked up and dropped in the USA. I PERSONALLY, think the world's best system is the Singaporean one and that is purely market driven. however again, will something that works for a city-state work for a continent sized?

#2 It's not Free -- the Germans pay huge taxes for this. I know that my own taxes in Poland go to providing the education system - and I'm happy to pay that amount even for others as we end up with a better educated workforce.

The Child care referred to is for pre-schoolers. I can't comment on Germany, but in Poland the Church has a role to play and parents vigorously prevent any gender propaganda

#3. I dont' mind the governmetn being generous with MY money if I get value for it -- and ti is run efficiently. Now that efficiency works in small countries like Estonia, Denmark etc. and is less so in Poland.

Again, as I repeat - the leftists need to realize that what will work in Denmark, a flat country of 10 million in a very small area won't work in a country of 300+million spread over a continent.

#4. Yes -- the "you must go to college" is a dumb idea. Here in Poland we have a few who go for Art history and that kind of studies, but the courses are limited -- there are no gender study courses or other bull.

As to your last statement, I never said it would work in the USA, I just elaborated what the magazine meant -- and also pointed out that the magazine doesn't seem to realize differences in scale.

no worries, we live and learn. The leftist media tries to say "look at Denmark, why can't the USA be like Denmark" - forgetting the massive difference in area, population, global weight, GDP, market, diversity etc.

The same is true vice-versa, what works in the USA may not work in Denmark

I honestly do believe based on my research into things (and I am NOT an expert) that the US medical system has been irreparably broken by Obamacare. It is a half-way point between single-payer and an open market. The US system was distorted by insurance money before, but Obamacare only exasperated it. Now with sky-high premiums, even those who could have afforded healthcare earlier, can't.

This is unacceptable

To ek-hornbeck, I think the Singapore non-voluntary yet private approach makes sense because insurance is based on diversifying risk. Otherwise no insurance company would take the older and / or sicker folks

Also the idea that you must pay for usage, even if it is a small amount, reduces overuse as we seen in the NHS (UK) or NFZ. It looks like a good system for singapore

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