Quote:
Originally Posted by jellyfish_sky
I would think that the major thing that would make people oppose free healthcare is a rise in taxes... I think that culture has a lot to do as well (value of money, individuals vs society, etc).
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I totally agree that culture plays a huge part of the way of thinking.
Since moving to Mexico I've gained a new respect for how certain things are done in the states, and apprecation for how things are done a bit different down here. In the US you can't pay to get out of going to court for a crime(but high payed lawyers sometimes tip the scales of justice in both places). Down here voting day is on Sunday, so more people that are working during the week and have other obligations have a better chance to vote on the weekend. There are both plus' and minus' to both places, but people seem to think that their own countries system is far superior, and ussaly have alot of patriotic fervor no matter what country they live.
In Sweden(if I'm not mistaken) taxes are nearly 50% of income, but people there seem to be used to it, and if they are mad, I doubt free health care would be the first on the chopping block. In the US it seems pretty much the same, taxes paid and not too much uproar, even though by some estimates the largest percent of it is now spent on military applications. I'm not sure how many people favor this, but at least a large minority favor the new war on terror, although before the war on terror something like 30% of taxes were spent on military, so it has increased significantly. This seems rather funny compared with Canada who has a much smaller economy, but per capita spends much less on military. There was a dispute a few years back with a cargo vessel that had nearly Canada's entire military onboard, and the cargo company held the military equipment for ranson until some disputed bill was paid. If you wanted to imagine that happening with the US, you'd have to envision a cargo ship the size of Antartica. There are many US bases that could be considered obsolete in very remote parts of the globe, but are still funded, which seems wrong when there are kids who go hungry in the US(but that's normal in many countries).
At anyrate I think everyone should look at how OTHER countries do things for improvement, because as with the individual, no one is perfect, and much can be gained by using others as examples.