There is actually one thing you Aussies got right. How you classify your politicians and parties... <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/lol.gif" alt="" />
If you indeed call your conservatives "liberal" then that would be at least somewhat accurate.
We are so ass backwards in this country it's no surprise that we're still debating this issue over government health care, private healthcare, when in fact, that issue was settled long ago.
Actual government healthcare is dead. It's not on the table. The only thing we are debating is how much MORE power and wealth the government grants the health care insurance industries and how much MORE money the tax payer will have to give to this private industry to cover additional people who are otherwise not covered.
There's another private entity that noone talks about either and that's the actual health care providers...hospitals and doctors, etc. These people will also get more money as the days of them having to provide free care and writing it off will be over.
It's amazing how simple of a society we've turned into. An entire national debate can be won or lost and fought over simple buzzwords that have absolutely nothing to do with what's really in the bill.
You overseas guys have to realize one very important thing. The system we are debating over isn't even in the same universe as the system you are used too. This is NOT a socialized system run by the government. That may have been talked about early on, but it was never the ultimate plan. So it's not anywhere near comparable to what you have.
Imagine a system where the largest private enterprise providers conspire with the government to gain control over the entire market place, oust any smaller competitor, then have the tax payer be taxed by the government to pay you an amount that guarantees some level of service, but most importantly, a level of profit and you as the private entity give away some minor concessions to make it appear as though you are a victim of socialism and that's exactly what you have here.
At least in a true capitalist system, the weak fail, the corrupt fail and the people as the consumers have the ultimate power to choose. With true competition creating efficiency in service and pricing. Everyone wins, if it goes right.
At least in a true socialist system, the government runs everything in a not for profit way, whereby the citizens, who supposedly control the government, have a sway over how the system is run. The lack of profit, allows the system to operate more efficiently in some ways.
The system we are creating is none of the above and is instead a monster morphed system where government is married to private industry and works towards of the goals of the private industry, rather than the public. The private industry has little to no competition, and the government (the people) have little no power to oversee the system, beyond the original law.
This means it will be a monster of inefficiency beyond our worst nightmares of anything we've come to believe as a healthcare failure, such as the UK or Canada or whatever.
America and China have created this new system of corporatism/government. It doesn't quite have a name, but it should. It really started with the Federal Reserve type systems that now permeate throughout the world, including the UK and Australia. Whereby private for profit banking systems have joined with the government to use government authority for it's own will.
That system has now expanded on a global level into areas like the World Bank, World Trade Organization, IMF, etc.
Rest assured...you guys in socialist countries are next. Because the overall goal is a world system based on these principles.
There's no point in debating capitalism or socialism...because both are now dead. Welcome to the future.
