Why do people think things will get cheaper when health care is privatised? Corporations need to make a profit. They are not interested in making things cheap. They are interested in getting a foot in the door and then rip you off.
as I said, because the stats show that the most successful (for amount spent overall) examples are PARTIALLY privatized. it was a shock to me too, I'm from the province that invented universal healthcare. EDIT: Aha, found it! you can download the entire report I was referring to here.
Hey, am I blind, in this article that I downloaded from buffys´s source I can not see the USA, why are they not listed? (not that I care that much about it, just curious)
sorry Dreamwalker, I misread your post. The US isn't included because it doesn't have universal healthcare, this report only compares similar health care systems.
Oh, I understand. Now that you say it I remember reading about that fact once. Thanks for reminding me.
You know that it wasnt a strike but a blockade by lorry drivers. They parked their lorries on the access roads to the feul depots. Now its extremely illegal to do that. Unlikely they will do it again, would you risk a criminal record, your livelyhood and freedom just for fuel? A criminal record is the way that the government makes sure you dont step out of line. Scotland is an oil producing country, but yet, our prices are extortionate just like the rest of britain. This country pisses me off also. Im leaving.
Which are more interested in profit. I don't know if this is a normative statement, but privatized healthcare is probably bad because they treat you like a way to get profit, and if you are unable to pay for your treatment, you might as well be dead! Still, even with government-owned health care that seems to be the case. Here, in BC, I have to pay insurance, and if I don't have enough money I simply don't get any treatment. Is that fair? Why should we put a price tag in someone's life.
It seems that the key is to privatize small healthcare business, particularly the ones that are not life-threatening. Like for example, you can have a private doctor that makes a general check-up. Your life is not threatened, so you don't desperately need to do it. If the government privatize "small" healthcare, the government won't need to worry about spending so much and competition may even draw the prices lower. Medications often have a perfectly elastic demand. It's kinda said, but "we" do put a price in other people's life... :/
Not here in BC, and it is total garbage. In Brasil, it is privatized, but the government has some influence in it (setting ceiling prices). It is awesome (even with the ceiling prices, the service is still pretty good).
Why don't you start driving less? Wouldn't that make sense? Think here people, prices are dictated by demand. Since demand for oil is so high in the US, especially with the summer coming, you have the perfect storm against the American consumer. With Asian economies sucking about 1 million bpd more this year then last!, with refineries not being able to cope with demand, and companies benefiting; you as the American consumer are the only ones to blame. This could have been avoided if people didn't buy SUV's en masse, causing the US to import millions more barrels from the Middle East, increasing your dependence on their good will. Prices will go down if demand goes down, and you will drive less and save money. I am happy that prices are so high because the structural changes in the US economy should finally begin to happen, and make the US economy much stronger in the future. Let's avoid being so short-sighted shall we?
drive less! of course, god we're idiots! ... well then, problem solved! might as well lock the thread now, discussion's over.
Well, what's the alternative? Driving more with an empty gas tank as that initial post basically suggests? Capitalism is a self-regulating system, and it's doing its best now. Stopping the excess of the consumerist society. Americans hopefully will begin to walk, not drive to the corner store. What was the joke? "Americans are the only people who spend $1.20 in gas to buy a $1.00 water bottle". America is a car country, and that won't change. But as an end result the US economy and your standard of living will depreciate significantly, and quickly very soon.
capitalism self regulates? sometimes. Diamonds are artificially expensive (demand is low compared to supply yet their cost is high), grains and meats are artificially cheap, lumber is artificially cheap, technology is both, etc. The price of fuel here has raised 20% in a month, neither the cost from the producer nor the taxes have increased that much (even if it had since they have considerable reserves the cost hike should not happen until those run out and new purchases are made). When international cartels are involved, supply and demand has much less power as a equalizer.
capitalism self regulates? sometimes Indeed it's not a perfect system nor did I indicate as such, but in this instance it is. Most of the money at the pumps is not even oil related, it goes to taxes. (demand is low compared to supply yet their cost is high), Supply is low as well, they are not prevalent, they take a lot of money to extract, and go through a very long and labor intensive process to make it on to market. You simply don't pick them up off the ground. Also they are in demand big time in comparison to their supplies. Diamonds don’t only go on fingers you know… grains and meats are artificially cheap, lumber is artificially cheap Not because of capitalism, as you suggested artificially, capitalism by it's innate nature cannot be artificial. What make those commodities so cheap are socialist economic policies enacted by our gov'ts. The price of fuel here has raised 20% in a month, neither the cost from the producer nor the taxes have increased that much The price of oil has gone up as well in that same period. In real terms we aren't spending much on oil anyways, in 1990 in real terms we were spending up to $50 a barrel, and today we are at $40. (even if it had since they have considerable reserves the cost hike should not happen until those run out and new purchases are made). Reserves? Production of those reserves is limited. You can't produce all 1 trillion barrels at once. The earth is producing 80 million bpd, which is already excessive. When international cartels are involved, supply and demand has much less power as a equalizer OPEC is not as strong as you may think; they all cheat on their quotas, and major oil producing states like Russia and Mexico are out of the loop. OPEC doesn't want prices to be this high, they know the economic damage, and they been increasing supply. You won't see the effects of that increase in a while. So sit back and enjoy the ride, if you can afford it. So where's the alternative Buffy's?
alternatives to what, "driving less"? I'm a strong believer in the "don't knock it if you don't have a better idea" philosophy but c'mon, if this issue was as simple as driving less there wouldn't be an issue. 90% of the problems (environment, economics & availability) involving fossel fuels has nothing to do with cars, they're the small end of the wedge.
Alternatives to driving are trains and buses. If everyone uses those, the usage of electricity (that's what they use to run trains, right?), amount of underground tunnels, and amount of buses (gas) would go up. In a city like New York, power shortages are usual in the summer. Another alternative is walking and flying. I am NOT walking from Brooklyn to Manhattan every morning to get to school! And may be if undecided buys me a plane, I'll consider flight. But that means airports, etc etc. So, driving is really a necessary form of transportation.
Where do you think the electricity comes from? It most likely comes from an oil or oil by product using power station. It doesnt just magic itself into existance, its polluting to make the electricity unless you use sustainable sources of energy - which most people dont like as it "looks ugly". "public" transport in britain is largely privatised but it remains a fact that its unreliable, expensive, dirty, slow and over crowded. This is mainly because there is more profit to be made in fitting as many people into the one train as possible, you pay £5.10 for a 30 miles journey one way. So you pay £6.30 for a round trip per day to get sandwiched in between some sweaty fat bloke and some other bloke, standing up listening to the guy's loud walkman "tsh tsh tsh tsh" a journey that can take 25mins by car will take 45mins while putting up with the smell of someone's sick from the night before. Oh, how I love the public transport. Oh yeh and to top it all off, you dont even know if your gonna get there on time. Now, thats value for money. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! Cheers.
