quote:
Originally posted by CookieRevised
Here we pay little for health care, social security etc, it is in the form of taxes and stuff. It is a better system as eg USA where extremely many people don't even have health care or can't afford it and sometimes they even don't help you out if you can't show some insurance papers and stuff. Health care here is almost as good as free, for everybody, the drawback is that everybody pays a little bit for everybody so paychecks are always a lot bigger (bruto) than what you actually get (netto).
Yes. I am familiar with that.
It wasn't clear to me what you meant at first, because it is customary (at least where I hail from) to quote pre-tax salary when discussing how much one is paid.
As for how great an extensive social services system at the expense of the taxpayer is -- like all instances of wealth redistribution, it is a step toward Karl Marx's "From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs" concept, which obviously only benefits those of lesser ability.
That said, I would most certainly rather pay for healthcare for some poor family with young kids than for invading random arab countries -- which, sadly, I am indirectly paying for at the moment.
While I am not originally from US, I have worked in US longer than anywhere else and can recall only one 6-month stint I did ages ago, where I didn't have private health insurance fully paid for by my employer. So, people who don't have it are obviously in the wrong line of work.
The upside of the US system is that if you have insurance coverage and if you need something serious done, you will get it done promptly and won't end up waiting in a long line. That doesn't seem to be the case in countries with socialized medicine -- at least, it doesn't seem to be the case in Canada and UK. I personally know people in both, who have waited for non-critical (but definitely quality of life improving) medical services for years. That wouldn't happen here, because there is enough money in it for capacity to outpace demand.
Of course, now we are way off the original topic. You should talk on IRC sometime; it could be fun.
