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Sparhawk wrote:
Oh yeah, and it's NOT free, either. Hospitals frequently charge 3-4 times more their uninsured than they do to insurance companies, thanks to deals worked out by those companies.
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But they have no legal means for forcing payment of these "debts." Hospitals issue the bills even though they know they'll never get paid so that they can write them off at the end of the fiscal year. Again, the poor are treated (and billed) with the full knowledge that payment for the services will never be recovered.
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Dragonlich wrote:
Yeah, that must be it. It can't possibly be that private enterprises may not always be the right solution.
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I never said that. I am just asserting that private business is by and large MUCH MUCH more efficient than a government-run business. In cases where private business has done a poor job, it is usually due to government regulation or interference.
My point is that the government control of a service should be a last resort stop-gap, not the first option. Yet, many politicians have figured out that they can buy votes with government giveaways, so reason flies out the window in most cases.
With public transportation, you have a business in which customers complain if you ask them to pay market value for the service, they complain if money-losing route isn't provided the same service as a money-making route, and they complain if the system doesn't run like a Swiss watch. The Brits, to my recollection, required non-profitable routes to be maintained and had very strict limits on pricing.
In considering the tax sytem of the Dutch, Dragon, I would ask you this:
are you taxed less because of the "rich" being taxed progressively higher rates? In other words, do you and your family benefit (i.e., pay fewer taxes and enjoy more free services) as a result of the progressive tax rate? If so, I can understand why you like it. I can't see how, in your heart of hearts, you genuinely feel that it is a fair deal for those who have worked hard and achieved wealth only to have it re-distributed, though.
In the US, the Democrats call me "rich" though I am far from it, and they want to tax me accordingly. Everytime a Democrat comes into office, they take more of my money. Every time someone cuts my taxes, the Dems claim that it is a "tax cut for the rich." Total BS.