I'd say that you hit the nail on the head with that remark. You're wrong about the bank balance though. I think a majority of Americans live on credit. Hence, the big housing crisis and bursting bubble. Social status is determined by what you have, and everybody wants to appear upper-middle class, so everybody buys everything on credit. They look wealthy, but in reality they're in debt up to their eyeballs. Hell, even the government is! So basically they don't have any extra money to spend on taxes because they're already buying cars and boats and iPhones on credit. They'd have to pay that extra tax on credit too!

Of course it did, due to government meddling running the price up. "Oh, pad the bill for 50%, the government's paying for it". Later -- "What? But we've been charging X amount!".

And the doctors do deal with it, by getting jobs in the USA. In all fairness, I imagine that there is a compromise between them. In theory, I certainly believe that "free" health care can be a good thing, but in practice I'd say that it hasn't been in Canada (or at least Ontario).

In high school one of my friends went to the hospital because she had pain in her gut/stomach and they basically told her that it was nothing and sent her home (I imagine she waited several hours for this diagnosis, but I don't remember). An hour later she returned to the hospital in unbearable pain. Turns out that she had internal bleeding for reasons that I forget and at this point was moments from death. They rushed her into surgery or something and managed to save her.

Years ago my uncle had a run in involving a coffee table, and basically got the same treatment. He fought the advice to go to the hospital for days, but finally went when he could no longer ignore the symptoms. They said it was nothing and he'd be fine and sent him home. A day or two later he was driving to work and realized that something was definitely wrong. Apparently he was basically passing out by the time he got to the emergency room (he drove himself). Turns out that he had 3 broken ribs and they were causing internal bleeding. It was the same story. They managed to save his life, but it was a close call.

There are valid arguments on both sides of the fence. I've seen "free" health care done wrong. I haven't experienced it done right yet, but I trust that others have. Regardless, I'd say that it's important for the people representing government to be unable to exploit the system, while simultaneously giving them the power and responsibility to make sure the actors in the system don't exploit it either. I think it's a difficult thing to attain, especially in a society where people aren't brought up with honesty, honor, and morals being core to their existence.

People like to say that, but its always greener on the other side. Yesterday was always better than today, and today is always better than tomorrow.

This is the way it should work!

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