You are quite uninformed about conditions in Eastern Europe. I was there.
Under Communism, unless you were the sort to complain a lot, you were left alone. You could choose among identical shabby apartments, indifferent doctors, and, as for taxes, Russia's are now lower than our's.
Here, you can choose among doctors that will report you for spanking your kids and for gun ownership. You can choose among indifferent mediocre doctors as long as they are on your HMO's list. And you can overpay for ticky-tacky housing.
Yea, freedom lite. Almost, but not quite, worth defending.
The Stasi never had anything so kewl as Total Information Awareness. They used paper files. If we forced our government to use paper files, we would be more free than we are now.
Explain how my three friends worked their way through med school to be doctors? They were not chosen by the state, each one decided to get up off their butts and but in 16-18 hour days and do it.
You can choose among indifferent mediocre doctors as long as they are on your HMO's list.
Uh. That's idiotic. I work for myself. I do not have an HMO. I have a single doctor and personally pay for Blue Cross (and I still make more than working for a slogging company.) I used to be lazy and work for a mega-corp, but I cashed in on freedom.
And you can overpay for ticky-tacky housing. Yea, freedom lite. Almost, but not quite, worth defending.
Again, you are limited by your mediocre skills, not the government. I bought a suburbia house after college, now I'm rolling the profit from that into building my own house out in the county, where the taxes don't hold me down.
In short, freedom doesn't guarantee success.
Sounds like you are MUCH more in tune with the ways of collectivism than I am.