So if you have to go to the doctor, you can't ever find one that's cheaper than another? Is this because they collude to fix prices, or lack of advertising because nobody demands it by going to "that guy" who does advertise prices? I realize that some situations could be more complicated than they could reasonably expect, but auto mechanics are in exactly the same position.

If your brakes fail, you can easily wind up quite dead!

There's plenty of ways an auto mechanic can cause one or more people to die. I remember there was a rumor about 15 years ago that the harmonic balancer on a cab (about 3-4 kg weight) came off a cab here and went through the windshield of an oncoming car with a family, killing one of them.

Rly. the link itself confirms what I said. We've gained a good deal back from the retarded incumbents. They just want to claw back contracts from june through december.

I know. It pissed me right off. Its you guys out east that keep voting him and people like him back in. You have all the power, yet wield it crappily.

I use "liberal" to designate somebody who thinks he knows what's better for people than they do themselves. They feel free to tell us what we should do because they've heard it from their College Professor, whose insular life has never been that of the common man.

That said, I saw a thread on Slashdot about the 4th of July, and was tickled by a post about the movie "Independence Day" where the hero disables alien spaceships by uploading a Windows virus, but the poster doubts it because their wasn't a message about updating Adobe.

So I had to torrent it to see this movie for myself. I was rolling my eyes just a couple minutes in, due to the statement "the object is 550 km across, with a mass 1/4 that of the moons size!. I swear, didn't those producers graduate the 8th grade? And yet, the yokels have voted this movie as 3.5 out of 5 stars, no doubt because of the explosions happening every 30 seconds or so. And yet, I still believe these yokels could manage their own affairs much better than some dweeb in an office a couple thousand miles away, because their money matters to them. And they still want Obamacare. (Edit: The liberals claim they want Obamacare) Perhaps this is because they imagine that they'll go to the doctor for every little hangnail, threatening a lawsuit if their life-threatening problem isn't fixed RIGHT NOW!.

On the other hand, perhaps my view of "what's important" is skewed.

This roomie I spoke of having the c. diff. has hardly been out of her room all day (landlord says she can't smoke in her room since she was so out of it she could drop the cigarette and set the house on fire or something). Anyway, I just let some of the used beer out and there was fecal matter scattered over the toilet seat, which she hasn't done since it was bad over a week ago. I just called her name, then knocked on the door to no response (AFAIK, she's hard of hearing since getting her left eye shot out driving cab in Boston) so I opened the door. She didn't wake up, but I can see her rib cage going up and down while breathing. 15 min. later I knocked louder, and she groggily asked what's up.

Now we weren't real big on going to the doctor when we were growing up, I remember my dad slung a boot across my mothers head when I was 4? and my sister got upset enough about the blood pulsing out of her head to call the neighbors, who somehow got her to the hospital before she bled out. I remember she was cupping her hands under the flow as if to save the blood, so I helpfully fetched the biggest bowl we had to keep the blood in so the doctors could put it back in. Another time we found our dad alone at one of his drinking buddies houses alone, with a 6 inch gash in his head, probably caused by either falling against the garage door track, or an axe next to the door, or even getting in an argument with the buddies who tried splitting his head with the axe. A couple of years ago, my current landlord went on a bender, and fell off the couch passed out, and I left him on the floor to sleep it off like dear old dad, somebody called for an ambulance and the hospital later claimed he'd had a heart attack laying there, and the cops were threatening me with an investigation or something for not doing what most people would do.

My point about being "uncaring" is that most of the time, people are having a cow over something very minor, like Chicken Little yelling about "The sky is falling".

Depending on the government is exactly that.

[EDIT]

I'm constantly nagging these fools playing the state lottery to go with my plan instead, I tell them that North Carolina only returns %66 of their lottery spending, and I can make a computer program that will return %80 percent if they'll only buy my lottery tickets, but of course they thing The Government Knows Best. The 440lb. guy I mentioned earlier has wished several times for more money so he could cash in on the lottery, and I've tried to give him my old computer several times, but he's worried he'll spend all his time watching porn as before, but once he mentioned that he wants to cash in on the penny auctions I haven't mentioned it again.

Well, sure, if you ignore the money wasted in government overhead, lack of oversight over expenditures, etc. that could have saved so much money and still "saved thousands". (millions? really!)

Religion "works" (to listen to the fanbois) as well. It's better than total anarchy, but the free market hasn't really had full reign ever. And since it's working so badly in the Gitmo Nation, it doesn't "work around the world". I wish you guys would stop the hyperbole.

The problem in USA I think is a obsession with money.

You dont want free health care because you are worried about losing a couple bucks every month, that will prevent you from buying the latest crap that Apple wants you to buy.

It’s pointless and wasteful consumerism.

I pay taxes, and they go to give free stuff to the guy next door, and Im happy with it. Wow, I missed the latest iteration of the iPhone because I paid taxes that saved some guy life, this system is broken!

Far too many people more interested in their bank balance than their quality of life. People richer than I can possibly imagine, who are depressed.

Despite all the resources, and all the money they have, they are sadder than people I know who can barely make ends meet in other countries, but still know how to live in the moment.

More money seems to be the only way they understand of solving problems...

Same here in South America, lots of people misses the good old days of the USSR.

note of color, my father was a doctor, like many doctors here, paid was optional, many times he got a gift for their service, like eggs, a salame, home made ham, kittens... I remember having a duck for pet like in 1985 that was a gift from a farmer... those were the good days, comrade!

My whole extended family and their families lived in a Socialist country. Some of them in Communist countries.

None of them got anything for free. Nor did they want anything for free. If you want to keep up you're gonna have to find a better source of information than what you heard "back in the 60s".

Again, we are clashing because you think the rest of the world thinks like the U.S. people do.

Never did anyone think they will get anything for free. Except healthcare, education and not starving to death (/obviously/) It was much more about being "in it together". They were comrades.

Everyone worked. Everyone worked. Last time I looked it up the unemployment rate was at an all time low of 6% "in the 60s". Salaries were higher by comparison back then. Industry was blooming. GDP was rising.

And there was no Big Brother (EDIT: At least not as powerful as you imply). My father said many things about the Government and never had anything happen to him. Sure, people went away, but people always do.

And, speaking of Big Brother. The U.S. Brother was always the biggest. Then, now, and in the future. So its kinda funny you using the term against socialism.

Practically everyone then? I'm speaking for my own country of course. Well, I was talking about Yugoslavia.

And why do you think free healthcare will collapse in the EU? You think this is a new thing here that everyone implemented 20 years ago?

And it will probably never collapse. People would be furious. Imagine your convictions and reverse them. That is how fiercely people here support free healthcare.

To me, free healthcare is like freedom of speech to you. The only difference is we still have both, you will soon have neither.

Our country is plagued with corruption and inefficiency. That is mostly why the system is shitty. Can't deny that. But then again, I can't argue against my grandmother having eye sight either. Or me being alive for that matter.

Of course you pay through taxes. I went ahead and calculated the net pay here and in the U.S. (could be terribly wrong):

Slovenia (monthly): 1676 USD - all the deductions = 1146 USD   (-31.62%)
USA (weekly):       824  USD - all the deductions = 621  USD   (-24.63%)

Maybe you think 10% more is a lot of money. I personally don't. It pays for health care, social security, pension, primary school, high school, college, etc. I really don't mind, as I have used it too.

I don't care if a few deadbeats mooch off of it. Better that than go rob a convenience store or stab an old lady for her purse.

Now, with such a system, how many people would become such parasites in the U.S.? Probably a different number than here. Two very different worlds indeed.