In The News

[Gr33n M4n]

Vermont and California tried to get single-payer but failed because they couldn't make the numbers add up. Polls show that the majority of Americans regardless of political stance want universal Healthcare. It's more complicated than "we just hate Socialism".

[Local Trouble]

Yeah, the American hatred (not from all quarters, obviously) of some kind of national health system just baffles me.

Why would you not want the safety net of guaranteed, free medical assistance?

[Huggs]

Apparently nobody in the US will aspire to become doctors without the motivation of getting rich.

Correct. I was the first intern of my kind that the hospital ever had at the time, and I had the pleasure of meeting, shadowing and working with just about everyone in the building. The subject of money came up plenty when discussing occupational choices. Not out of meanness, but merely as a means to provide a good life.

And as somebody who comes from a medical family, if the big money was in bagging groceries, they'd have been bagging groceries. My friends father was a physician and flat out told me he got in it for the money. It drove him crazy but he did what he had to do. He wasn't a very good doctor though.

I'm sure there are plenty of medical professionals who want to help people. But it's still a high paying job at the end of the day, and that's what attracts people. There's no point is sugar coating it.

Every other developed country uses a form of universal healthcare, it works and yes every human being deserves it for free regardless of status, I don't see the complicated part.

Okay, now up their populations to over 300 million and counting. And if there is another liberal president, add on millions of illegal immigrants every year. Make it 400 million.

Comparing the U.S. population to any other developed nation is like comparing a carnival cruise liner to a pond dingy. The math changes.

[BringbackJonesy!]

As an interested observer of all things American, I feel bad for the fact that so many don't have the security blanket that we here in the UK have with our National Health Service.  And that goes for many other countries around the world that don't have a decent free-at-the-point-of-need healthcare system for their poorer citizens too, of course.

However, I just wanted to say that whoever managed to convince your President that it wasn't such a good idea to try and encourage everyone back to work (and church) by Easter, deserves a medal from your nation when everything settles down eventually.  They've likely saved many, many lives by making him do a (probably grudged) u-turn on that, as like other countries, it would have been far too dangerous to do so yet.

[Gr33n M4n]

Shutting down the economy would probably cause another depression, and lead to even more deaths and struggles.

[SM]

Better to die now, eh?

[SiL]

What's a few hundred thousand people dying for the sake of marginal GDP growth, really? Seems like a great deal.

[Gr33n M4n]

In England alone, 17,000 people die of the flu every year. Now imagine what would happen if the nhs didn't have the proper funding because the economy was crashed.

[SM]

Conservatives.

[Local Trouble]

Another thread in which certain posts won't age well.

[SM]

Like a prawn in the sun...

[Huggs]

Now we know how Hicks is handling the lockdown.

https://nypost.com/2020/03/30/person-dresses-as-bush-to-sneak-out-during-coronavirus-lockdown/

[SiL]

In England alone, 17,000 people die of the flu every year. Now imagine what would happen if the nhs didn't have the proper funding because the economy was crashed.

What's the point in a well-funded NHS if your pandemic policy is "f**k it, let them die"?

[Prez]

Australia is apparently flattening the curve... that said now is not the time to get complacent. STAY. HOME.

[SiL]

The panic buying seems to have stopped (Woolies now has TP, mince, and rice in abundance -- pasta's still out though), the shopping malls are empty. It's bizarre and uncomfortable, but it's great.