tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5727369088532211108.post7697379460905961341..comments2024-03-27T17:29:55.442-04:00Comments on The World According To Butch Trucks: You Have To Read This One!Butch Truckshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08175786196916620501noreply@blogger.comBlogger92125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5727369088532211108.post-528660479875147732018-06-26T10:37:38.992-04:002018-06-26T10:37:38.992-04:00
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I am Mrs Lara From New Jersey U.S.A, I want to use this medium to share a testimony on how God directed me to a Legit and real money lender who have saved my marriage and the life of my husband. My husband was at the point of death when he was diagnosed of prostrate cancer, the doctors demanded the sum of $14,000 for my husband operation and medical bills. I began to run heater skater just to sort out for money but I did not succeed in getting any money even family members turn down on me, at this time all hope was gone, after praying so hard. I received a call from a childhood friend whom told she got a loan from Mr Lapo with very low amount of interest. I thought this was a mockery to my situation without any options left I decided to take a try and i applied for the sum of $58,000 shockingly within 24hours I received the loan. I immediately went to the hospital to deposit my husband surgery bills and I also to paid off our debt then also took the left over and expand my business. I am more than grateful to Mr Lapo because if not him I would have been a widow by now. He has done more I expected that why I want to share my testimony with you in case you are in need of loan or know someone that needs money for any kind of business or project he offers loan to students, business personnel, workers, pensioners private sectors private vendors and lots more. with a very low interest rate of 3%, so I want to advice and direct you to him if you are seriously in need of money to change situations around for good go to Mr Lapo for help and financial assistance you can contact then through this email: lapomicrofinancebank38@yahoo.com he does not know am doing this i pray that God will bless him for the good things he has done in my life.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07582159886466473221noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5727369088532211108.post-12074661929064919592017-02-06T06:26:33.791-05:002017-02-06T06:26:33.791-05:00I’m Torres Castro by name. I live in Colombia, i w...I’m Torres Castro by name. I live in Colombia, i want to use this medium to alert all loan seekers to be very careful because there are scammers everywhere.Few months ago I was financially strained, and due to my desperation I was scammed by several online lenders. I had almost lost hope until a friend of mine referred me to a very reliable lender called Mrs.Mary Smart who lend me an unsecured loan of $85,000 under 2hours without any stress. If you are in need of any kind of loan just contact her now via:marysmartservice@yahoo.com I‘m using this medium to alert all loan seekers because of the hell I passed through in the hands of those fraudulent lenders. And I don’t wish even my enemy to pass through such hell that I passed through in the hands of those fraudulent online lenders,i will also want you to help me pass this information to others who are also in need of a loan once you have also receive your loan from Mrs.Mary Smart, i pray that God should give her long life.<br /> <br />God bless her forever.<br /><br />Torres Castro<br /><br />Testimony on how i got my loan Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5727369088532211108.post-14404689757386487572015-02-08T17:54:37.807-05:002015-02-08T17:54:37.807-05:00Butch; been listening to you play since 1970. Jus...Butch; been listening to you play since 1970. Just found this blog. We have way more in common than your music. This is spot on. Thanks for this and the music.<br /><br />Cheers,<br /><br />JimAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5727369088532211108.post-50009250025036201302014-09-27T12:39:21.451-04:002014-09-27T12:39:21.451-04:00hey butch, just curious why you are not on the son...hey butch, just curious why you are not on the song standback? please don't keep me wondering no more.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13045034589910630201noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5727369088532211108.post-65796472640999184802014-02-23T17:24:24.611-05:002014-02-23T17:24:24.611-05:00The point of Thomas's piece was that people wi...The point of Thomas's piece was that people with mneas should take care of the needy and indigent and not leave it up to the government and it's dependent making welfare programs (which by the way continues to not have enough money to pay for all the vote buying politicians need). I guess for Gates and Buffet... it's easier to give out of ones wealth than out of ones poverty... Love your drumming!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5727369088532211108.post-46708705254002030822012-04-17T21:31:41.179-04:002012-04-17T21:31:41.179-04:00What Bill Gates is doing in total is great. Howev...What Bill Gates is doing in total is great. However, I understand that he is also in partnership with Monsanto and their genetically modified foods. There is a lot of dislike and distrust for Monsanto.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5727369088532211108.post-80333753652060831302011-10-26T14:57:34.927-04:002011-10-26T14:57:34.927-04:00Nice painting Mrs. Trucks! Pretty much right on t...Nice painting Mrs. Trucks! Pretty much right on the money Jim G!!Lacyguitarnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5727369088532211108.post-52445861677581497752011-10-03T15:59:31.688-04:002011-10-03T15:59:31.688-04:00Butch and Dan,
First things first guys -- might I...Butch and Dan,<br /><br />First things first guys -- might I suggest that there are a lot of things we agree on here? We're just disagreeing on the remedies.<br /><br />In the beginning of the Frontline program, you are told an interesting thing. Greenspan is a disciple of Rand who is a libertarian. Yet, he must renounce that title in order to become the chairman of the Federal Reserve. This is because the Federal Reserve manipulates the market by setting interest rates. I made this point in my previous post. So, to assume that we are in a state of "unfettered, unregulated capitalism" is wrong. <br /><br />In an unfettered and unregulated capitalistic world interest rates are set based on market forces. When the economy overheats, interest rates rise and it slows economic activity. In the 90s, rates were kept artificially low by the fed in order to keep the tech boom going. When that failed, they lowered them even more because "we needed to allow the economy to recover." Boom, along comes the second bubble in a decade and again, interest rates are now lowered to 0%. The government is creating another mess. This is not unfettered capitalism. The Fed also creates money out of thin air which devalues the currency. Gold and silver are going through the roof not because they are worth more but because the dollar is worth less. The DOW has surged since March/09 for the same reason, not because we are pulling out of the recession. <br /><br />Another thing that bothers me is the notion of "too big to fail." My educational background is not in finance but even the so called experts failed at their jobs. So I have to say that I find it very odd that we need to bail out a company. So the company goes bankrupt and their investors lose their investment. First things first, you never invest anything that you can't afford to lose. If you violate that rule, you deserve to go bankrupt. Maybe I'm oversimplifying this because I don't understand the intricate details but neither do the politicians who decide on these rules (irrespective of their ideology). If companies get so big that their bankruptcy would cause entire economies to fail, then they need to be broken up just like a monopoly would be broken up.<br /><br />Another point (BTW: I'm going on a week vacation tomorrow so I'll not be able to respond to any rebuttals) -- that entire PBS program showed how bad government officials can be when given the power to regulate or not regulate. <br /><br />The libertarian mind says you are free to do as you please but if you get into trouble don't expect others to bail you out. In capitalism, if you do not provide the marketplace with a product or service that they need and want, then you go bankrupt. You then pick up the pieces and do something else hopefully different from your first idea. But when government steps in and bails you out, you are encouraged to make the same mistake.<br /><br />Butch, I use the term Keynesiamism because Keynes pushed the idea of government stimulus to heal economic recessions. Friedrich Hayek said this would have an opposite effect and I agree with him.Jim Gnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5727369088532211108.post-17946522096263688422011-10-03T08:43:13.589-04:002011-10-03T08:43:13.589-04:00And I will point out that Oteil was correct when h...And I will point out that Oteil was correct when he pointed out that Bill Clinton was pre4sident when this went down. I trust that by now most informed people have seen that Bill Clinton was, at best, a centrist, and at worst used conservative policies far too often to advance his agenda.Butch Truckshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08175786196916620501noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5727369088532211108.post-11576913210118751722011-10-03T08:40:21.794-04:002011-10-03T08:40:21.794-04:00Jim, you are once again taking one part of the dis...Jim, you are once again taking one part of the disaster that might fit into conservative thinking and proliferating the myth that it was the cause of this mess. As usual, the cart is before the horse. If you do nothing else please take the time to watch this program. It is a fairly detailed account of what happened and how our "free marketeer, Summers, Geitner, Greenspan and the head of the SEC" were told of this secret box with trillions in it that no one knew anything about. The discovery of what was in the box (OTC derivatives) and the refusal by these men to do what needed to be done to reign in this Guiness Book of Records level greed. This was the trigger that set everything else in motion. <br /><br /><br />http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/warning/view/<br /><br />Watch this program. It is vital to an understanding of why we are where we are and the real forces that brought us here. I do agree with some of your accounts of what caused the housing bubble. And please DO nOT use the term Keyensian to describe what has happened. It shows that you are blatantly passing on the myths being used by the right. There is very little resembling anything Keyensian about the policies that we have or are following.Butch Truckshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08175786196916620501noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5727369088532211108.post-58011108700301617932011-10-03T07:39:11.306-04:002011-10-03T07:39:11.306-04:00Jim
I think if you're attempting to argue tha...Jim<br /><br />I think if you're attempting to argue that the global financial crisis was caused by anything other than unfettered, unregulated capitalism you're on to a loser.<br /><br />And if you're suggesting that the solution to the global financial crisis is less government intervention then I would profoundly disagree with you.<br /><br />What recent event have proved is that the free market, left to its own devices, will bring not just individual countries but - thanks to globalisation - most of the developed world to the brink of collapse. Whatever the solution is, unrestricted capitalism is certainly not it.<br /><br />The trouble with most discourse about the left by the right is that sooner or later it degenerates into conspiracy theories about "controlling our lives". Leaving aside the question of how "free" most Americans were under George W. Bush, or how "free" they might be under Rick Perry, Mitt Romney or even worse Michele Bachmann, no socialist - or Marxist for that matter - wants to control everyone's lives, certainly no more than those on the right do. It's simply scaremongering to suggest otherwise.<br /><br />You say there's nothing wrong with making money on an investment but in my view there is something wrong with making a profit on public services, particularly health. There are enough opportunities for those who see making money as the be-all-and-end-all without handing over the public services to them as well. Those services should be ring fenced not-for-profit organisations.<br /><br />Cheers!<br /><br />DanCoolerkinghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09361672497440531260noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5727369088532211108.post-68828416740033159342011-10-03T00:27:23.906-04:002011-10-03T00:27:23.906-04:00Let's look at the sequence of events that got ...Let's look at the sequence of events that got us here. <br /><br />Congress creates the community reinvestment act in 1977 that forces banks to give home loans to those who cannot afford to repay them. The act does not get any real teeth until the 90's when several banks are sued for violating the act.<br /><br />At the same time, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac tell banks they will assume mortgages in the secondary market so long as originator bank lends according to the GSE's standards. Banks see opportunity to make money originating loans and selling them to the GSE a month after closing. Their risk is low.<br /><br />Fannie and Freddie along with top investment bankers devise insurance like scheme to lower risk of homeowner defaulting on loans. The idea is to package high risk loans with low risk loans and sell it to other investors. Thus one default doesn't kill the investment.<br /><br />The Fed seeing that the real estate market is robust keeps interest rates artificially low to encourage lending and buying of homes especially by those who never were able to get past the down payment required by homes in the past. After all, shouldn't a home be a right for everyone?<br /><br />The real estate market heats up to the point that it can no longer be sustained. At some point investors realize the market has peaked and pull out. Market crashes and house values drop. Scores of recent home buyers now realize they owe more for their house then what it's worth and decide to walk away from their mortgages and homes. Record mortgage defaults cause some banks to go under.<br /><br />Fed steps in and says we need to bail out biggest institutions. Really!!! Lehman and Bear Stearns are left to fail. BofA is forced to acquire Merrill and Countrywide. AIG bailed out. Morgan Stanley picks up Smith Barney from Citigroup. Rest of Citigroup bailed out. <br /><br />Now, what precipitated this whole thing? It was government action. The community reinvestment act. Forcing banks to give out bad loans. This led to the collateralized debt obligations which would have worked if the Fed hadn't stoked the fire by keeping interest rates artificially low.<br /><br />But the politicians involved with this set out a course of blaming everything on the CDOs as being the problem. The banks and investment houses couldn't defend themselves because they needed a bailout to continue business. What cozy bedfellas we make.<br /><br />You mention greed as the problem. There is nothing wrong with making money on an investment. It's what powers our economies. The real problem is big government trying to control our lives. They do great damage because they are seldom correct with their actions. It's the same as Solyndra.<br /><br />This is the root of socialism and it's why I believe it will never work. And those ailing European countries? They were headed towards unsustainable entitlement problems before this happened. This real estate bubble bursting just accelerated their problems.<br /><br />And I agree. We haven't seen the end of this. I'm looking at the Euro drop in early Monday trading and I fear more chaos this week. <br /><br />So long as we use Keyensian economic policies we'll only make things worst. It's time to swallow the bitter pill. I hate to say this but things are going to get a lot worst before they get better.Jim Gnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5727369088532211108.post-77503323411974494592011-10-02T23:58:32.751-04:002011-10-02T23:58:32.751-04:00Keep the faith, BT- great stuff, I'm truly imp...Keep the faith, BT- great stuff, I'm truly impressed. <br /><br />What always strikes me about the adherents of the "I got mine/screw you" ethic, as you put it, is the way they try to get Jesus C. all mixed up in it. Or at least a heavily customized Jesus C., who wants tax breaks for the very rich, lots of deregulation, more military spending, lots of invasions, more executions, less environmental protection, less compassion for animal rights, and doesn't like poor people or a lot of other types of folks who don't look like him. Not big on forgiveness, either. Oh, and guns- He REALLY likes guns. <br /><br />Call him the "I got mine/screw you" Jesus. He's waiting for you to give him your heart.<br /><br />If the guy from the Bible showed up, though, they couldn't get him nailed to the cross fast enough.surferjoe1https://www.blogger.com/profile/13515442970375703574noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5727369088532211108.post-55588560088365021282011-10-02T14:47:20.802-04:002011-10-02T14:47:20.802-04:00The problems in Europe right now have nothing to d...The problems in Europe right now have nothing to do with any of their "socialist" programs. They are mired in the same pit that the rest of the world is in. Most of it courtesy of the USA, unregulated traders and over consumption. The trillions of bucks form OTC derivatives that were spewing from all over back to Wall Street as far back as The Clinton years became the plague that is now eating away at Greece, Portugal, Spain and all the rest of us. Greece is in worse shape than the rest because it made matters worse by running up massive public and private debt. They would, however, not have run into the kind of trouble they have now if they hadn't bought so freely into the OTC derivatives and, like all the rest of us, their housing market had not gone bust. Germany, on the other hand, kept a far tighter control on these types of transactions (that is they actually acted more in a socialist manner and did not allow unregulated free trading). At the moment Germany is doing just fine and if not for them and France bailing them out Greece would have already defaulted. In fact this is what caused our markets to dive in the recent past. The real shit has likely not hit the fan yet, however. Greece is still headed toward default with a couple of other countries right behind them. None from any "socialist" activities. All from over spending with worthless crap that originated right here in the good old USA from our obsession with an unregulated "free market" and some very smart, unscrupulous and now extremely rich Wall Streeters. It's Gorden Gecko type greed and our government's lack of any oversight that has brought this on. Would that more socialist systems would have reigned them in. We would all be much better off.Butch Truckshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08175786196916620501noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5727369088532211108.post-5511875010431558242011-10-02T11:36:52.729-04:002011-10-02T11:36:52.729-04:00Your "assertion" is based on a compariso...Your "assertion" is based on a comparison between a system based on complete socialism and communism with a health care system. I don't think I really need to point out your fallacy in logic here. This is the exact argument used when social security was passed. Has the social security system turned the USA into an economic or political system that even resembles the USSR? That is what the opponents of social security warned that would most surely happen. On the contrary, this country in 2011 has far less government regulation than it did at the time that social security was implemented in 1935. We were given the exact same argument when medicare was passed in 1965. Putting into place a system that provides basic health care for all citizens is the norm in the free world. The USA is the exception. You think that we should feel good that private health companies "only" make $100 per person from their services? First, what "service" do they provide? 2nd if the USA has 50,000,000 uninsured then 250,000,000 have some insurance. That means that private health companies "only" make 25,000,000,000 a year in profit. In other words if private companies were removed from the system there would be more than enough to cover everyone and lower the costs. You pay a small increase in your taxes and you no longer have to pay exorbitant health insurance premiums to companies that, by their very nature, must place shareholder profits at the top of their list of priorities. Lastly, The Commonwealth Fund, in its annual survey, "Mirror, Mirror on the Wall", compares the performance of the health care systems in Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Germany, Canada and the U.S. Its 2007 study found that, although the U.S. system is the most expensive, it consistently under-performs compared to the other countries.[5] One difference between the U.S. and the other countries in the study is that the U.S. is the only country without universal health insurance coverage. Since 2007 premiums have soared as have the number of the uninsured. This country CANNOT survive with our current medical system. If not the Affordable Health Care Act then what? I'll finish with this quote from ABC News: In the midst of a deep economic recession, America's health insurance companies increased their profits by 56 percent in 2009, a year that saw 2.7 million people lose their private coverage. We are being sold a bill of goods built on myths that have been perpetuated by the bilking and misery of the average American. A Universal Health Care System would NOT turn the USA i9nto the USSR any more than it has any other country in the free world. Bro, wake up.Butch Truckshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08175786196916620501noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5727369088532211108.post-1831903879797947422011-10-01T21:00:33.427-04:002011-10-01T21:00:33.427-04:00Butch,
My assertion is based on history. Soviet R...Butch,<br /><br />My assertion is based on history. Soviet Russia lasted about 70 years. It imploded mainly because in a socialist society, you have have more takers than producers. That fact that it lasted that long is odd to me but it eventually imploded under it's own weight. They were communist which is radical socialism with it's dictatorial regimes and repressive society which is different than socialist western Europe so maybe it will take Europe longer to see the same results.<br /><br />But we are starting to see the struggles of the socialist societies in Europe -- namely Greece, Portugal, Spain, Ireland, and Italy. Even here in the US, we are getting predictions that Social Security will run out of money some time in the future.<br /><br />Regarding your statistics, I have no idea if they are true or made up by some politician. I believe the health rankings come from the UN which has never been favorable to the US. If the health rankings were as bad as they say, I would see it first hand but I don't. (If you want to provide links to that info, I'd be happy to read it)<br /><br />We are described as having an obesity problem in the US. I do see that very clearly. But that is not a problem of a society that is faltering. Quite the opposite, it's a society that has made abundant supplies of food available at cheap prices. (Please people, lets not get into a discussion of food companies and what they do to food. That's a different debate.)<br /><br />Regarding the insurance companies making lots of money, I once got into a debate with someone over this topic. People often generalize about this like your doing here which makes me feel uncomfortable. I'm not willing to accept this so I did a study of United Healthcare's balance sheet. People were saying that they were making billions on people through health insurance. Sounds bad. But the problem was that they were insuring a hell of a lot of people. When I did the math, I was surprised to find that they were making about $100/year on each subscriber. I expected it to be much higher than that.<br /><br />Jim G<br />p.s.: Thanks for responding to my post. Even though we disagree, I enjoy the discussion.Jim Gnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5727369088532211108.post-80591942656685119502011-10-01T20:12:12.476-04:002011-10-01T20:12:12.476-04:00Jim, there is an obvious answer to your assertion ...Jim, there is an obvious answer to your assertion that a single payer system will implode. The USA is the only country in the Western World that does NOT have it. We are paying roughly twice as much for our health care. We have 52,000,000 uninsured and 10's of millions under insured yet we rank at the very bottom in almost all categories regarding health. We have shorter life spans, higher infant mortality, you name it we're are at or near the bottom. All of these other countries have had health coverage for all citizens for many years and none have "imploded." This is one of the insurance industries favorite arguments to keep us paying $.40 out of every dollar that we spend on "health care' for private medical insurance. During this recession private hospitals are making all time high profits. The insurance companies, like wise, are making more money now than ever before. Sorry, but your reasoning just doesn't agree with reality.Butch Truckshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08175786196916620501noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5727369088532211108.post-7242033527028670862011-10-01T10:16:46.760-04:002011-10-01T10:16:46.760-04:00Hi Dan,
Your comments regarding the selfish socie...Hi Dan,<br /><br />Your comments regarding the selfish society make me think. <br /><br />Isn't it selfish for someone to let someone else pay for things they need to live?<br /><br />Our society embraces compassion. It's natural to feel compassion for those who don't have basic needs. There will always be a part of society that want to take advantage of that compassion. <br /><br />If I'm out of a job and I'm getting paid an unemployment compensation, why would I want to look for a job. This is especially true if you hated the job you were just laid off from. I know this feeling because I've lived it. Also maybe I need a job because I need to pay for health insurance. That's a good motivator.<br /><br />Because health care is "free" people will always take advantage of it. Your mention of ambulance rides and we in the US having to pay for it. If it's free am I going to ask myself "Is my condition bad enough to warrant an ambulance ride?" No, the average person will say he's entitled to it because they paid their taxes. But having that ambulance come to your aid is removing it's ability to service someone else who may need it more than you.<br /><br />The problem with "free" health care is that the system will eventually implode under it's own weight. Expenses will always exceed revenue requiring additional taxes or the cutting back of services (as Wired pointed out). And this is a never ending cycle until taxes are so high and services are so poor that the people revolt.<br /><br />This may take 50 years or 100 years but I'm convinced it will happen.Jim Gnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5727369088532211108.post-64143042726297718592011-09-30T01:52:40.106-04:002011-09-30T01:52:40.106-04:00OOPs sorry dam typos...
I meant to say... I ("...OOPs sorry dam typos...<br />I meant to say... I ("can't") speak for your European system<br />Sorry!!!The Wired Journalhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04038615553661279539noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5727369088532211108.post-25528062215203601712011-09-30T01:47:24.683-04:002011-09-30T01:47:24.683-04:00Dan, Jim,
You have an excellent discussion going h...Dan, Jim,<br />You have an excellent discussion going here I hope you don't mind me jumping in here.<br />Lets take health care (Obama Care)Now I can speak for your European system but here is the problem here in the US the reality and crux of it anyway and why so many Americans are against it...<br />Obamacare is a disaster, unconstitutional, unaffordable, unworkable, and stunningly unfair. Its so-called "individual mandate" is blatantly unconstitutional and an unprecedented expansion of federal power. If the federal government can coerce individuals—by threat of fines—to buy health insurance, there is no stopping the federal government from forcing Americans to buy any good or service.<br />In addition to the unconstitutional nature of individual and employer mandates, we are learning that they simply don’t work. <br />Their intractable problem is this: once you have a mandate, the government has to specify exactly what coverage must be included in insurance for it to qualify. This introduces political considerations into determining these minimum standards, guaranteeing that nothing desired by the special interests will be left out. <br />And once the government mandates such expensive insurance, the government becomes responsible for its costs. It has to adopt expensive subsidies to help people pay for the expensive plans that it is requiring. The resulting cost to the taxpayer and strain on the budget leads the government to try and control healthcare costs by limiting healthcare services. The inevitable result is rationing by a nameless, faceless, unaccountable board of government bureaucrats. <br />The Obamacare law also creates one thousand, nine hundred and sixty eight separate grants of power to bureaucrats, most of them to the Secretary of Health and Human Services and her bureaucracy. It creates 159 new boards, agencies and other government entities to administer health decisions that should be up to the individual in consultation with their doctor. This unprecedented grant of discretionary power to unelected bureaucrats guarantees the rise in arbitrary and corrupted decision-making by the federal government.<br />We must either limit government or we will have government limit us.<br />http://www.newt.org/contract/legislative-proposals#OneThe Wired Journalhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04038615553661279539noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5727369088532211108.post-91741051208415714282011-09-29T07:17:00.048-04:002011-09-29T07:17:00.048-04:00Hi Jim
No worries!
I think what you've don...Hi Jim<br /><br />No worries! <br /><br />I think what you've done there is highlight an individual instance of an under-performing hospital. While I'm certain there are others of similarly low quality, I'm equally certain there are far more that provide exemplary service often under less than conducive conditions.<br /><br />The solution to this is to improve standards, not throw the baby out with the bathwater and take it as a sign that the whole principle of free health care should be scrapped.<br /><br />I'm not surprised that in the US you get a jaundiced view of the UK's NHS, for the simple reason that for years it has been a concept which as a nation you have been strongly against. Equally, in our country we hear stories of US citizens having to pay before an ambulance will take them to a hospital and so on. It sounds pretty inhuman to us.<br /><br />I don't have a problem with some of my taxes being spent on services which I may not use but that others do. I see that as part of one's duty to society. As I said before, I'd happily pay more tax to improve standards, particularly in the health service and education, even though I'm no longer in the education system and even though I may never get ill for years. <br /><br />We've had enough of the selfish society where everyone takes but doesn't give. It's time for a selfless society. <br /><br />Cheers!<br /><br />DanCoolerkinghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09361672497440531260noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5727369088532211108.post-72731612010695992082011-09-28T23:36:45.139-04:002011-09-28T23:36:45.139-04:00Sorry Dan, I accidentally called you Bob.Sorry Dan, I accidentally called you Bob.Jim Gnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5727369088532211108.post-663208436835778212011-09-28T22:16:48.815-04:002011-09-28T22:16:48.815-04:00Hi Bob,
Thanks for commenting and being very civi...Hi Bob,<br /><br />Thanks for commenting and being very civil. You mention a lot of things in this post. Let's do one at a time.<br /><br />The National Health Service. You say its free. Not really. All health care must be paid for somehow. Perhaps that is just semantics since you do mention that as part of your taxes you get health care in return. No being a resident of the UK, I don't know if that means income taxes or some other kind of taxes like real estate taxes. Either way, there will always be people who cannot afford those taxes or maybe they don;t work so you will have to pay for your own health care and part of someone else's health care.<br /><br />Add to that the problem that when I government runs any entity, they usually don't do a good job. We here in the US hear all kinds of horror stories about the NHS. But it's probably not fair for me to use rumor as fact so I will use a UK paper as a source of info about the NHS.<br /><br />http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/health/article5928256.ece<br /><br />This article is pretty damning. Receptionists with no clinical training assessed new arrivals. Patients waited hours for emergency treatment, and when thirsty had to drink water from flower vases. The pressure to meet arbitrary targets encouraged doctors and nurses to ignore seriously ill patients in order to attend minor, quicker to treat, cases. One senior doctor admitted to leaving a patient with an arm broken so badly that the bone stuck through the skin with no pain relief for four hours. The hospital’s board ignored a threatening rise in cross-patient infections. When surveyed, only 27% of the hospital’s own staff was happy with the care they provided. All in all, investigators estimate that the hospital killed between 400 and 1,200 patients in a three year period.<br /><br />What is not seen is what contribution the UK makes to the advancement of medicine globally. When you experiment with a program like this, there are seen consequences and unseen consequences. I think the unseen consequences are that innovative new medical advances don't really come from the UK. Instead, they come from places like the US where people are paying for premium medical services. But where does that leave the poor. In the US, they can walk into any emergency ward and get free medical care. No one is turned away. They may not get gold plated care but it's still free. <br /><br />The NHS doesn't sound like something I would be proud of. But I believe in my heart that this is what you get when you put government in charge of something.Jim Gnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5727369088532211108.post-85174117847965893242011-09-27T13:43:19.108-04:002011-09-27T13:43:19.108-04:00Hi Jim
Thanks for your comments; I appreciate you...Hi Jim<br /><br />Thanks for your comments; I appreciate you taking the time to reply to my post.<br /><br />I would say, first of all, that I agree with you - as I am sure most people would - that a welfare system should exist to help those who need it. There will always be those who abuse the system for their own profit but that's true of virtually any system (e.g. the stock market). The government has to do what it can to weed out and punish the system abusers while maintaining support to the needy. What it shouldn't do is cut the system back for all merely because some people abuse it.<br /><br />Second, I don't accept your link between the existence of a welfare system and growth into a full communist society. The UK has had a proper welfare system since just after WW2 and at no time in the subsequent 60-odd years has it ever remotely threatened to become a communist society. Indeed, the welfare state has abided through periods of Conservative, Labour and coalition governments. The National Health Service, which provides free health care to anyone and everyone in the UK, is something of which we are justifiably proud. We pay our taxes and part of what we get in return is the guarantee of free health care. And I would happily pay more tax to drive up standards.<br /><br />I would also argue that it is not socialism or big government that has led to the current global economic crisis. On the contrary it is rampant capitalism, unregulated banking, and the greed and general selfishness which they promote, that has driven us to this point. What the last twenty or thirty years (if not longer) have demonstrated is that capitalism serves only to enrich the rich; there is no 'trickle down'. The poor stay poor and the rich get richer. <br /><br />What the US, the UK and most of the world needs is a much better distribution of wealth. The world doesn't need to be creating more millionaires; it needs to be moving people up from below the poverty line. And if that redistribution of wealth means I have to be slightly worse off in order to help those with less than me be better off then so be it. Now *that's* compassion.<br /><br />I say this with the greatest of respect but it seems to me that it is an almost uniquely American view to regard anything left-of-centre - whether mildly leftist, socialist or Marxist - as one and the same thing. They're not; just as not everyone on the right is a foaming-at-the-mouth, homophobic, religious nutjob.<br /><br />Speaking of which, that stuff about the left 'infiltrating the education system and molding young minds' is something I'd expect to hear coming from Michele Bachmann. That 'Invasion of the Body Snatchers' mentality - that a bunch of unfeeling automaton Marxists are slowly trying to cheat you out of your chance of becoming a billionaire - is ludicrous but, staggeringly, has been the driving force behind much domestic and foreign US policy for as long as I can remember.<br /><br />Hope all this is taken in the spirit in which it is intended, namely good-humoured but deeply felt political discussion; just as I'm sure we would if we were shooting the breeze over a beer.<br /><br />Cheers!<br /><br />DanCoolerkinghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09361672497440531260noreply@blogger.com