It's not a "problem", it's a priviledge. One which everyone is entitled too. Those that have the possibility of making it on their own and are able to make that happen, pay a little bit more, so that the less fortunate (sick and disbabled and those less fortunate than most) can manage in life.
It sounds grand in black and white. All noble and socially relevant. The facts are, the system is abused, it provides poor quality care, it undermines productivity of a nation and its people.
It is simply a system based on solidarity.
The primary beneficiaries of it -- those who abuse the system, who haven't the work ethic to provide even minimally for themselves and their families -- certainly think so. Those who are forced to give up their hard-earned income in order to support the former certainly do not think so. You have a very idealistic view of what your system accomplishes. You ignore the fraud, the medical neglect and incompetence, the overall malaise that sets into the professionals providing the services and bureaucrats who long ago gave up trying to reform it. I've seen the figures on Swedish medical care. You have these issues. I find it odd that you gloss over them in trying to support this unsupportable system.
It is certainly not an "evil" system to be feared. I would even argue, that in some ways, it is one that many find quite attractive.
Orwell's state officials said the same thing about their system.
I know of a lot of Americans, once they visit Sweden, or hear about how things actually are in this "socialist" country...have no explanation to why a "rich" country like USA has to have so many poor, not be able to insure that all its people have acces to education and health care.
They, like you, have bought into the liberal/socialist lie that there are people in this country denied healthcare, education and a chance to improve themselves. It is nothing but a lie. No one can be denied healthcare, pregnant mothers who don't get prenatal care have no one but themselves to blame because it is readily available. Horror stories that "prove" the lie can always, always be traced to irresponsibility or neglect on the part of the patient who then decries his/her own inability to "get healthcare" when in fact they could have had it at any time.
It really is not all that complicated. It is just a matter of sharing a little more justly, what the people of a nation produce in wealth, as a whole. The filthy rich will still be rich. It is the filthy poor, that will not be so many.
I'll tell you a story.
A Nigerian government official visited Kansas City several years ago in conjunction with the Sister Cities program. After being shown the typical glowing shrines and great icons of an American city, she was asked what she would like to see next. She said, "Show me your poor." So they arranged an auto tour of east KC, which some have said could give east LA a run for its money. Yet, when completed, she said of the tour, "You didn't show me your poor." The city officials assured her they had. Her response: "Every driveway had a car in it. Every child I saw had a coat, they had toys, they lived within walking distance of a school. Yes, I saw drug dealers on the corners and abandoned homes. But that isn't from lack of income. That is from lack of personal responsibility. I can only conclude you have no poor."
By her standards, she was absolutely right. We don't have "poor" in this country. They could be called "disadvantage" but most of that is because of their own lack of work ethic. We have raised six generations of "welfare babies" in this country, and the current generation believes they are owed a living without holding a job, an education without studying and now medical care without responsibility to pay. Yet there are those among them who have refused to buy into the system. They have refused to seek the government for sustenance, support or handouts. They have made it on their own, getting Ivy League educations and building dynamic businesses they employ people who actually want to work. Most of these have turned their backs on the system from which they came and challenged their people to pull themselves up by their bootstraps as they did, even establishing foundations that will help them do so if they choose.
Jesse Jackson attempted to do that. His message was one of a self-reliant, bootstrap mentality. He was telling Chicago youth the system didn't work, and never would. He challenged them to prove themselves instead of letting others care for them. That didn't sit well with the Chicago political machine. They are, after all, Democrats. Democrats built the system under Kennedy, Johnson and Carter. Democrats depend on the votes the system generates for them. No one is going to bite the hand that feeds them, afterall.
So they co-opted Jesse. They offered him a seat at the table, whispered sweet nothings in his ear, planted dreams of the Senate and the White House in his mind. But once they had him, they muzzled him. The Rainbow Coalition died a quiet and uneventful death. With died the real hope of the welfare generations.
You think you have paradise in Sweden. You have a docile, unmotivated general population with some success stories of free enterprise and riches to make you think you have a good thing. You don't.
You are just a more upscale ghetto than we do.
I was so saddened to our recent trip to San Diego, where you have people sleeping in the streets...like, all over the place.[/quote]
