Nothing I can say in response that J_T_B hasn't already said. I don't think the rich should be entitled to better education or health care than the poor. This just leads to social problems on a huge scale. Ever wonder why there aren't large gangs of crack dealers wandering the ghettos of Stockholm and Rekjavik?
As crack is rather expensive, It pains me to think of the poor huddled masses in "Stockholm and Rekjavik" who are so destitute as to not even be able to afford their weekly fix of cocaine. /snark
Anyway, I just googled: Muslim riots stockholm. Shocking, I got some hits. You guys seem to have your own problems.
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in all seriousness, it's really apparent to me that if I ever left the U.S. I'd suddenly discover I'm actually a right-winger.
Here's my position on health care:
I think that so long as there are doctors freely available to work, everyone is entitled to some basic level of health care. But if you want expensive or state of the art treatments you must be able to pay for it. My feeling on education is similar, everyone is entitled to some basic education (K-12) and if you want more than that you should either get a scholarship or pay for it. (although i'm all in favor of increasing funding towards government sponsored K-12 education, so the poor get a better education, which is one of the many reasons i'm considered a left-winger in the U.S.... )
I feel that if the Rich want to pay a private doctor to do some expensive treatment or even gene therapy, that's a private arrangement between the Rich person and the doctor and has absolutely nothing to do with anyone else. Frankly, as long as the rich arn't using their money to screw the poor over, it's none of the poor's business how the rich see fit to spend their money. If there's a social inequality problem, the solution is a progressive tax structure and government welfare, not restricting the freedom of the rich.
I don't think there should be restrictions on what people can spend their money on if they are not hurting other people. I also feel that if the rich have extra funds they should be able to get the best education that money can buy, and again this is a private agreement between the educators and their clients and has nothing to do with the poor.
I also think that having a competitive capitalistic market in medicine is a good thing in that it gives doctors the leeway to try new things and develop new techologies and cutting edge treatments. I think that the possibility of earning extra money gives people extra incentive to try new things, and further refine these treatments until they become well established.
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as for eugenics, I see this as a liberty issue not an equality issue. As long as the government or some other coercive force isn't mandating it, I have no problem with it. Having the government or some other coercive body sterilizing stupid people is something that i'd completely oppose because nobody should have that kind of power, at the same time if People and their doctors want to experiment with gene therapy that's not something i'd have a problem with.
