5 Countries That Kick Ass When It Comes to Health Care!

[FORD]

Chimpy just wanted to get in some fishing time with his old man....

[Terry]

Have you seen Cheeto's new cruel joke of a "budget"? There's absolutely nothing in it which would suggest he has an interest in an actual health care plan. Or any sort of plan that benefits humanity in any capacity, for that matter.

I mean, Christ, yet another round of austerity measures (even if Trump's heartless budget doesn't pass) and cutbacks to government services that benefit the poor and working class the most, all in order to provide the upper classes and business conglomerates with a round of tax breaks they don't need: I say that they don't need it because historically such tax breaks have as yet to "trickle down" to the rest of us.

And the areas/states/regions these cutbacks will impact the hardest are those that went for Trump in the biglyist, yugest way last November. It's scary, and I take no sadistic pleasure in thinking about what is coming down the pike for these Trump voters (and the rest of us).

However, it's good that these elite sentiments about the underclass are finally going to be delineated in easy-to-understand fiscal policies: if one couldn't have figured out by now how the ruling class views the rest of us, this budget shines a bright, hard light on the sentiments. In short, those in power have no moral obligation toward anyone other than themselves, and 90% of the country can best be summed up as the servant class. Useful only if they are contributing their time and labor to keeping the ruling elites in power, useless and disposable otherwise. Nothing new historically, but sort of takes the gleam off the notion of America being historically unique.

Economic playing field not level in terms of wages? Tough shit. Can't afford health insurance and/or quality health care? Suck it up. Have outlived your usefulness as a worker, but don't have enough to retire within the confines of decent, humane living standards? Bite me, snowflake. Either start buying cat food to eat in bulk from WalMart or have the decency to fuck off and die, because we have no more use for you. Lived a decent life and didn't scratch your way to the top by fucking over everyone you encountered? Whatever, dumbass. Clearly you were too much of a weak pussy to make it to the top, so eat shit and die.

'Merica! USA! USA! USA! USA!

I mean, are the things I illustrated above really where we are at as a nation now? Was it always that way? It didn't used to feel that way. Are we only good for bombing the shit out of other countries now? Is an economy where 10% swap bad loans while the other 90% work at Starbucks the definition of the American Dream? Is it unpatriotic for me to say these things?

I want to love my country. I want to give my President (even though I didn't vote for him and frankly think he's mentally unfit to hold that office) the benefit of the doubt and support him.

Trump's America is making it pretty fuckin' hard to do those things.

[DavidLeeNatra]

Terry, you're spot on. As a kid I slept in stars and stripes and dreamed of going to America one day. I live in Berlin and we were raised with the legacy of the "Rosinenbomber" and believe it or not we applauded when the GI's drove threw our streets.

But...BUT...time went by and from an outside view your country turned exactly into what you described above. And yes, being grateful and saying that your country turned into a place that has issues is possible.

I don't agree with everything that happens here either. Skandinavien countries are far superior in many things, like education and school systems. The problem is, that your right wingers sell every act of social humanity or caring for each other and helping the weak as an act towards socialism or communism.

We have a system where no one is left behind if it comes to health care. And yes, I pay more than others, because I make some solid bucks. Do I live in a socialist country? Heck, no! Ask the Greek! But I give to a system I once benefited from coming from a working class background. And I give to live in a strong and wealthy country. You leave people behind, you get trouble. You get people like Hitler, Erdogan and yes, you get Trump. A compulsive liar (don't say he isn't) promising smoke and mirror and "easy solutions" by blaming others but fucking those who voted for them up their asses.

Don't fool yourself. I said "so called country" because you don't seem that united anymore. You leave many, many people behind. I said "so called government" because a leader should have a plan, some kind of program. There is no, except from empty promises.

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[Terry]

Terry, you're spot on. As a kid I slept in stars and stripes and dreamed of going to America one day. I live in Berlin and we were raised with the legacy of the "Rosinenbomber" and believe it or not we applauded when the GI's drove threw our streets.

But...BUT...time went by and from an outside view your country turned exactly into what you described above. And yes, being grateful and saying that your country turned into a place that has issues is possible.

I don't agree with everything that happens here either. Skandinavien countries are far superior in many things, like education and school systems. The problem is, that your right wingers sell every act of social humanity or caring for each other and helping the weak as an act towards socialism or communism.

We have a system where no one is left behind if it comes to health care. And yes, I pay more than others, because I make some solid bucks. Do I live in a socialist country? Heck, no! Ask the Greek! But I give to a system I once benefited from coming from a working class background. And I give to live in a strong and wealthy country. You leave people behind, you get trouble. You get people like Hitler, Erdogan and yes, you get Trump. A compulsive liar (don't say he isn't) promising smoke and mirror and "easy solutions" by blaming others but fucking those who voted for them up their asses.

Don't fool yourself. I said "so called country" because you don't seem that united anymore. You leave many, many people behind. I said "so called government" because a leader should have a plan, some kind of program. There is no, except from empty promises.

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I'll tell you, Natty, that I was fortunate enough to live abroad for a few years in Europe in the late 1980s. Fortunate in the sense that people who are born and live in America all their lives and never leave (or leave for brief holidays and never immerse themselves in other cultures beyond basic tourist excursions) don't have the actual physical realization of what it is to experience the fact that there is a big world outside of America. Much, much bigger than America.

Post-war German reconciliation with the rise of the Nazis and all that transpired - and the role of all the German peoples in that - none of that could have been easy. Having to dig out of the rubble of what Hitler left for them and cope with the shame of it. Contrast that to what I was taught in American schools growing up in the 1970s: how it was Manifest Destiny, divined by God, that the British settlers/Amercian colonialists claimed this land and therefore it was only just that we for all intents and purposes wiped out the Indians who were here before us. Or how we were doing Chinese immigrants a favor by letting them come here in the 1800s and perform what amounted to slave labor in the construction of our railroads.

There are still more than a few people in this country who believe we were doing Africans a favor by abducting them, enslaving them and transporting them over here to perform agricultural labor. That this was doubtless preferable to the Africans than leaving them in Africa living their lives. Or how noble all our actions in World War II were - winning historical perspectives always being written by the victor - when we firebombed Tokyo to the ground prior to dropping the atomic bombs, surely a proportional response to what happened at Pearl Harbor, right? Or what we did in Korea. Or Vietnam. Or Chile. Or Greece. All in the name of exporting American greatness, usually in the form of McDonald's Big Macs, Levi's blue jeans, Coca Cola plants and nuclear weapon systems.

To be sure, NATO and the Marshall Plan were forces for good. Eventually, we got the language and laws of slavery right, but it didn't eradicate racism. It wasn't a bad thing to have expelled Saddam out of Kuwait. However, look how close we came to an apocalypse playing nuclear brinksmanship with the Soviet Union in 1962. So, don't feel any shame about your German lineage re: the atrocities undertaken by the Nazis. Shit, America has engaged in plenty of inhumane, atrocious undertakings of it's own, and to even say as much makes a sizable portion of our citizens say "if you don't unconditionally love our country without criticism, get the fuck out!" At least Germany learned from what happened. History has taught America nothing other than to double down on our indoctrinated belief of American Exceptionalism.

To me, America is predicated on the notion of economic (extending to social) Darwinism, otherwise known as Capitalism. Which is a fine belief system if you're already on top. However, when I was growing up, the poor were people toward whom one extended understanding, sympathy and assistance. Over the last 40 years, we've been conditioned to think of the poor as lazy losers and an inconvenience to be, at best, ignored. Even Democrats no longer talk about helping the poor with the frequency they once did. Now it's all about helping "the middle class"...and it's odd to me that so many religious values voters have such non-Christian attitudes toward the less fortunate. We are now a country where wry, ironic detachment from the plight of anyone other than our own selves, our own needs and our own material desires has become a virtue. One giant one stop strip mall from coast to coast. It's pretty depressing at times, even more so when apparently our country has among the highest living standards to be found in the industrialized world.

As far as consensus, how can we even say the country is anything on an ideological scale when only half the people who could vote do vote, and the half that do are split down the middle?

None of this started with Trump. However, the man IS a compulsive (possibly pathological, although honestly I don't think he even knows enough about 90% of the things he opines on to even realize he IS lying) liar. There's nothing subtle about his personality, persona or character. He's not like Nixon, who was always trying to mask certain personality traits to make himself more appealing. Donald Trump is totally, without apology or pretense, front and center as to who he is. It's my hope that there will be enough capable people around him (White House staff, elected Congressional representatives, military officials, federal judges, career intelligence agency people) to prevent him from doing something irrevocably catastrophic. I use the word "hope" because I'm not exactly seeing an abundance of those types of people at the moment.

I want to take pride in my country. It's where I was born and raised, and it's where I work and live. I'm less and less sure I want to spend the remainder of my life here, though. I'd like to take another look at what is beyond our borders. A longer look. I'll always self-identify as an American to a degree, but I also think human decency should transcend ethnicity, religious beliefs or nationality. Mostly because as a species, humans wherever they live should have more commonalities than differences.

[DavidLeeNatra]

This is by far the most intelligent and substantial post I've EVER read in any of the political "debates" here.

And yes, it helps to look over the horizon. To learn other languages, to visit other countries and get in touch with their people. It would be interesting to start a post and ask to see who has ever been abroad and experienced a different culture. Military Service doesn't count. When I read some of the comments here I highly doubt that their authors ever leave their state.

[Terry]

This is by far the most intelligent and substantial post I've EVER read in any of the political "debates" here.

And yes, it helps to look over the horizon. To learn other languages, to visit other countries and get in touch with their people. It would be interesting to start a post and ask to see who has ever been abroad and experienced a different culture. Military Service doesn't count. When I read some of the comments here I highly doubt that their authors ever leave their state.

You are too kind, sir.