Guy Tweets His Experience Of “Socialism” In Europe, Many Agree It’s A Good Thing And Wonder How Anyone Can Be Against It
No one government system is ideal. Some are better than others, but even that is sometimes debatable as each has its own upsides and drawbacks when looking at the bigger picture. This is, of course, excluding all of the gruesome dictatorships and authoritarianism.
And since it’s voting season in the US, talks of these advantages and disadvantages, changes in the system and everything around and in between are becoming commonplace, especially on the internet.
It’s baffling to think that there are still people who are against things like universal healthcare and education
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One such discussion—specifically about “socialism” and things that often pertain to it, like healthcare, education, and whatnot—was recently sparked on Twitter.
Twitter user Stu Cameron (@stucam7771) recently tweeted his experience of Scotland and “European socialism,” which some in the US claim to be a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad thing.
One guy shared his experience of “socialism” in Europe—a concept some dare to say is bad to the US
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In his tweet, Cameron said that he managed to get an education and his parents got immense medical help that cost them nothing:
“I graduated from a Scottish university in the 1990s—level of debt, zero. My parents have survived cancer and a heart attack, level of cost, zero. Most people pay employment tax at 21%. Now tell me European ‘socialism’ is a bad thing…”
He continued: “Of course, the cost of healthcare isn’t zero, but it’s normally zero to the patient. You’ve effectively paid it forward by paying your taxes. If you don’t spend excessive amounts on the military and tax richer people a little more, it’s very achievable…”
The tweets sparked a discussion with many sharing their own positive experience of “socialism”
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This sparked a discussion among tweeters with a lot of people sharing their own experience of healthcare and education outside of the US. Well, more specifically, in Europe.
Many have come out explaining the significant difference in healthcare costs, such as getting a wheelchair, receiving cancer treatment, and the cost of insulin. They’ve expressed their surprise at how such a no-brainer system that effectively ensures basic human rights could be up for debate and even with strong opposition.
And it wasn’t just Europeans—Americans who have either studied or have moved to live in Europe were also pointing out just how absurdly capitalistic the healthcare and education system in the US has become and that some are passionately against “socialism” without even properly understanding the concept.
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What are your thoughts on this? Let us know in the comment section below!
I think a lot of Americans (US) fear socialism because believing the American Dream- that anyone can make it, independent and without the state- is a way of coping. If they admit they should have a more active state, they confront the fact that their system is broken. (generalising of course)
Roland, thank you for using the name of Gandalf. I appreciate you.
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The US has a huge, multi-billion dollar machine designed to spread misinformation and hate about things like universal health care. It's called the Republican Party.
You're right but making a statement like that targeting solely the republicans isn't helpful. Look at some of the headlines in left-leaning mainstream media and there'll make you cringe (they certainly did make me do so). Some of the lies and half-truths that are currently being spouted by the right risk lives and that is a distinction atm. But to say misinformation is being spread on such a huge scale is one-sided is factually incorrect and risks making a deep division in society even deeper.
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Americans had a line drawn in the sand several decades ago which taught things as being black and white; Capitalism on one side is pure freedom, limitless dreams and infinite money. Communism (and socialism) on the other side is horrendous poverty and civil war under a tyrannical dictator. Unfortunately communism has been a useful tool for several dictators, but many Americans have blamed the tool itself without understanding it. As stated by others, anything that tiptoes close to generosity or equal treatment from the government (i.e. socialism, welfare, affordable healthcare) is put on the same side of that line in the sand for those people still living in fear of the Soviet Union taking over.
The weird thing to me, is that during the cold war the US posed taxes up to 70% on the highest incomes. And no one called it socialism. Reagan came, and now it's down to 20-something percent. That's insane! When people talk about making 'America great again' there seems to be a longing to the 50's and 60's when families could live on one income, everyone could afford college and the 'American dream' was withing reach (all the social dilemma's of those decades aside). No-one ever stops to think as to how taxes played a role in all this.
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At some point the medical system in the US became a "for profit" system, then we paired it with a for-profit insurance system that benefited from systemically denying claims. While pro-capitalists argue that this makes a robust system that encourages innovation, we all suffer under it because of regulatory gaps *created* to exploit sick people by stockholders rather than public interests. Nobody wants to admit that they were wrong, and there isn't a way to overhaul the system without turning over that rock and seeing the people who (1) hold enormous financial and political power and (2) benefit from forcing sick people to choose heath over financial security.
It's quite amusing how easy it is to get people angry. Just tell them that you live in a country where the government takes care of you from the cradle to the grave if that should be necessary. Yet at the same time you have the total liberty to live the way you want to. And all of this without paying 99% of your income on taxes, without a government that can take away everything you own when they want to, without worries about your pensionplan or retirement, without a fear of huge medical bills, with labor laws that are in favor of the laborers instead of the employers, with a legally set number of holidays, with job protection when you get sick, with still getting your wages even if you can't work because you're sick and all the other benefits that we have accepted as normal and as our human right to have them.
Joanne Haywood Is delivering food the most important requirement you take into consideration? Also, UK is not mostly in lockdown, more like a few districts, and if it will be in the future, better for its inhabitants. And as for Brexit, I imagine it'll be like before EU, only without half the Europe under Soviet thumb.
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As a french guy, I don't understand all these discussions between Americans that I think absurd. In France we pay taxes. I am a professor and I give about 12% of my salary for social system. I don't use it ? Great ! I use it ? I have almost nothing to pay. Even if I have cancer, a motor handicap, even if my children are sick, even ... Really I don't understand.
Agreed. I don't get the mindset: " Why should I pay taxes if I don't need healthcare?" Isn't solidarity a thing with those people? I'm a mixture of several European countries and live in Denmark and we have pretty high taxes, but I gladly pay them. I was hospitalised with an intra-abdominal abscess a few years back. I was driven to hospital by ambulance (for free), bombarded with meds (for free), had surgery (for free) and stayed there for 5 days (for free)! I shudder to think what that would have cost me in the US. And I don't mind my tax money helping others whom I don't know...
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Wife went to pick up a few prescriptions today. With insurance, three meds are usually $17. Our new fiscal year started and we haven't gotten our new cards yet. The pharmacy charged her full price. She only got two meds for $90. The third one was over $100 by itself. We have insurance, we just haven't gotten our cards yet. This is f*****g stupid.
Who stands in line for 3 hours for 'free' meds? Takes 10 minutes! That's if you bother to get it yourself and don't have it delivered. Surgery takes 5 months??? Only IF you aren't urgent. Good grief Goli Soda, don't know where you live but YIKES!
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Making any drastic change to American healthcare as a whole is probably not going to happen in our lifetime. Both sides of the aisle are corrupt. Doing some light research will show you that politicians get rich when they get elected, because they get in the pockets of big business. Then when bills get written, politicians pad these bills with extra verbiage that sucks money away to totally unrelated projects. I could go on for days. The American system of government is broken. The ideal of a government "by the people, for the people" is dead. You know what though? There's still far worse places to live.
From what I have found out, in the US, the average family pays $600 per month into health insurance. Let's say you sign up at 21 and you die of old age at 90. 828 Months=69 years age 21 to 90 $600 per month health insurance Total $496,800 What if you are really lucky and never got ill beyond the usual colds and flu people get. That money is then wasted! No one benefits from it other than the insurance company! American Tax: 39% UK Tax 25% Using a GoFundMe to raise money for medical requirements is the same as social healthcare but with the added indignity of begging to live and basing the chance of living off the kindness of strangers. It is also extra payment outside of taxes. Hey, American public... how much did you pay on average to all the GoFundMe's that came, cap in hand, for help with surgery or prescriptions? In Europe, it is like everyone pays a mandatory GoFundMe that no one really notices because of it being low and part of the tax system.
Hey, American public... how much did you pay on average to all the GoFundMe's that came, cap in hand, for help with surgery or prescriptions? In Europe, it is like everyone pays a mandatory GoFundMe that no one really notices because of it being low and part of the tax system. As everyone is contributing continously the amount put in is very high. Health insurance or private health care is pretty much a bolt on that gives you better access, not better care although the level of care is very high. America, you are being ripped off and you are doing it to yourselves! 2/2
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The comments on this post are really enlightening to what I find most fascinating. I am European who has traveled widely. I have lived in a decent number of countries and visited many more. The one country that seems more foreign to me than any other one is the USA. In many ways, it is as though it is on another planet where truth is a matter of who says what louder and repeats it the most times, and where a lot of people will hold on to an opinion and steadfastly refuse to even look at actual facts. Amazing and fascinating, and very frightening.
People who lived in communist dictatorship fear socialism. Those who weren't, are more positive-thinking about it, but aren't aware of how smoothly can one transformed into the other. It only takes the same corrupt politicians, and what haven't changed throughout the ages? Politicians. Just my two cents.
Also must be mentioned that socialism is best in countries that don't call themselves socialist countries. For a good reason.
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I wish Europeans would stop obsessing about American politics and worry about their own problems.
America is a problem that the whole planet has to deal with... a country that big has a large amount of impact across the globe. Just like China.
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I am about to have an extensive amount of dental work done in the upcoming weeks. I don't have health insurance or dental insurance so my parents have offered to pay for it with me paying them back. For all of the work I need done, my parents, who are retirees, are going to possibly end up paying around 8000 dollars for my dental work. If we had universal healthcare in the US, we would not have to be worrying about these expenses. My sister has epilepsy and her meds cost over 200 dollars a month. Since we both work a minimum wage job, it's hard for her to afford that. So again, if the US had universal healthcare,this would not be a problem. Universal healthcare should be a guaranteed right to everyone and not just those people with money. Instead of crying socialism every single time this issue is brought up, how about we help each other.
1. What you have in Europe is not socialism. Socialism is what countries like Cuba have. 2. Almost ANY health system compared to the US health system is better. The US spends like 15% (which is a lot more than most countries) of its GDP in health and medical bills and gets very little in return, there are countries with much lower per capita income that have higher life expectancy. The problem is the US health system is very unregulated (for starters, huge lack of price transparency) and there is a lot of waste, that's the reason there are millions of examples like the 1s given here.
No, Cuba isn't "true socialism". Socialism by definition DEMANDS democracy and can't work under a dictatorship. The PEOPLE own the means of production, not the dictator.
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There's a bit of a false premise here, there is NO socialism in Europe. Europe is much more right wing today that it has ever been since WW2. However it still has policies where, in my country, you don't have to go into debt for a university education and healthcare, prescriptions, dental checkups and eye checkups are free (glasses and dental work are free if you can't afford it too) But the US has conned people into thinking that being unable to afford to take care of their health is somehow about 'choice' rather than health. Our taxes are a little higher but eventually we'll all need more health care than we could actually afford - age does not come alone. In my country the plot for Breaking Bad would end at the doctor's appointment ie he'd just get all the treatment and medications that he needed without being charged for them..
Just stop buying weapons to export your "democracy". You will find a lot of money to become "socialist" too...
European here. What about the real estate market over here? Most families where both parents work full time can hardly afford to buy an apartment in bigger cities and even for this they will be paying off for 30 years. If you want a house, you have to move further away to suburbs, or simply forget about it. Not everything is bright and shiny here.
Okay, the first thing we have to discuss is taxes. You guys all love Sweden, right? Well, here's the news: Sweden pays for everything by taxing the MIDDLE CLASS, NOT the rich. When they did tax the rich in the 1950s, it just made all the rich, including the founder of IKEA and Bjorn Borg the tennis player, leave the country. America taxes the rich much more than Sweden. The top one percent pays nearly 40 percent of all income taxes. The top 10% pays nearly 70 percent. Second, hospitals. I agree that US healthcare has some problems. Change the healthcare system all you want. Just don't increase taxes. It's great to help people, but when you force us to pay for others, that's little more than theft. Now, onto education. Everything is free, right? Too bad that now since everyone is going to college, there isn't enough room. The government has to restrict which classes you take as well as how many people can major in a subject. On top of all that, there are massive MIDDLE CLASS taxes.
Why don't the Americans look up Socialism in the Oxford Dictionary, they may find out it's true meaning
What is presented in the media (which I'm saying like this because I'm not American) of the American mindset... looks like contradictory chaos. Essentially (and very generally) it's these sentiments: "I can't afford to get life/death surgery! But Universal Healthcare is EVIL, how dare you think about taxing me? You're just an evil SOCIALIST!". Basically every complaint seems to be directly followed by an outright denial to actually DO anything about it because it's "not the American way". So ... what it shows is "I want the thing to just be given to me without me having to do/give anything! If I have to, it's not the American way!!!" - so..... they end up sounding like an entire nation of bratty children who want things without contributing anything. But it's still "Great" and "the RIGHT way of things"... because... they're keeping up the "American Ideal"... so ... the American ideal is to be... parasitic? Huh?
I don't believe in socialism a hard working person shouldn't have to have their money go to someone who is too lazy to work.
1000 is low. I paid 1300 back in 2011 with insurance and not a high deductible plan.
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It used to be that we didn’t like socialism because we didn’t trust government and viewed it as a necessary evil. That was before. Now half the population has abandoned loyalty to country and embraced Dear Leader, so I imagine they’re ready to give national socialism a try. We’re lucky we are a diverse country with no small traditional convenient victim group for QANON to focus on. I can comprehend what Germany was like in the 1930s now.
Unfortunately, I fear that you are absolutely right. My biggest fear is that Trump will start another war overseas in order to try to unite the country against a "common enemy". Compare it to the fall of the ruling military junta government of Argentina after the 1982 invasion of the Falkland Islands (it beats me why GB still has overseas territories), or the fall of the Greek military junta after their meddling with Cypriotic politics instigating a coup to try to unite Cyprus with Greece. Hitler chose the Jews as "the common enemy" to unite the Nazis behind his lunatic ideas that are now so popular among the US extreme alt.right groups. It is not boding well. Please VOTE!
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I can talk about this whole day ... if you really what know my opinions.
Now lets hear from people from Venezuela and Cuba. The successful so called socialistic countries have a huge income from natural resources....Norway...or a capitalistic economy. Our socialistic leaders want to take over the economy like Venezuela. That is my concern.
Socialism mixed with capitalism is not the economy those countries have. You are not making fair comparisons. You are making claims that have no truth in reality
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free healthcare is not free. EU and UK has 20+vat tax, average 20% income tax businesses 15% employer tax 17% and the highest of all gas tax US right now $2.20 a gallon diesel about 10 cents higher and last year UK canceled up to 400 operations a month, Canadians often come to america for operations and specialty care. and trump is working regulations rx have to be sold here for the same every other countries pay. and just because a person doesn't have insurance . they still have access to healthcare
If you total up all you pay in taxes, then add in your health insurance premiums, deductibles, co-pays, and medication costs, you will discover that socialized healthcare cost considerably less than the for-profit system we're stuck in now. My husband & I are both 72. With Medicare premiums & all its deductibles and co-pays it makes getting needed medical care impossible for us unless we decide to stop eating and live in the street. I have Lupus and am supposed to be seeing 5 different specialists each month to keep the disease from shutting down my major organ systems. I can afford to see only one each month, thus sentencing myself to a premature death from Lupus. My husband is an insulin-dependent diabetic whose insulin and supplies cost about $100 per month. He will die immediately without his insulin, so we go without buying food for 1 week each month just to pay for him to live that month. Trump would just as soon let us die than change the health care system.
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I feel like America should spend less on the military but that's only possible if our European Allies step up to cover some more costs.
Scotland's largest minority is Other White (non Scottish at 8%). Scotland is only 4% Nonwhite. That makes Scotland one of the whitest nations on Earth. https://www.scotlandscensus.gov.uk/ethnicity-identity-language-and-religion#:~:text=In%202011%2C%2084%25%20of%20Scotland's,'White%3A%20Other%20British'.&text=The%20Asian%20population%20is%20the,point%20(69%2C000)%20since%202001.
Even the Great White North (Canada) is less white than Scotland, and that is truly saying something.
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I was born and I lived for 23 years in a socialist country, the Socialist Republic of Romania, and I can tell you socialism is criminal. Socialism is s**t. Socialism is like "1984", even worse.
And people always forget that with all the evils of the soviet union it was still a socialist country, not a communist one.
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And again you are comparing a twisted dictatorial form of socialism with Democratic Socialism as it exists in Western European countries. No, we don't have a Stasi controlling people. No. no one is forced to spy on his family. friend or neighbors. I guess it's the sheer thought of contributing to a society where everyone is treated equal that drives Americans crazy.
Load More Replies... So what you are arguing for is a healthy level of both capitalism and socialism. I really don't think you realize what you are arguing for.
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Imagine an analogy that doesn't fit the question to hand.
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I think a lot of Americans (US) fear socialism because believing the American Dream- that anyone can make it, independent and without the state- is a way of coping. If they admit they should have a more active state, they confront the fact that their system is broken. (generalising of course)
Roland, thank you for using the name of Gandalf. I appreciate you.
Load More Replies... The US has a huge, multi-billion dollar machine designed to spread misinformation and hate about things like universal health care. It's called the Republican Party.
You're right but making a statement like that targeting solely the republicans isn't helpful. Look at some of the headlines in left-leaning mainstream media and there'll make you cringe (they certainly did make me do so). Some of the lies and half-truths that are currently being spouted by the right risk lives and that is a distinction atm. But to say misinformation is being spread on such a huge scale is one-sided is factually incorrect and risks making a deep division in society even deeper.
Load More Replies... Americans had a line drawn in the sand several decades ago which taught things as being black and white; Capitalism on one side is pure freedom, limitless dreams and infinite money. Communism (and socialism) on the other side is horrendous poverty and civil war under a tyrannical dictator. Unfortunately communism has been a useful tool for several dictators, but many Americans have blamed the tool itself without understanding it. As stated by others, anything that tiptoes close to generosity or equal treatment from the government (i.e. socialism, welfare, affordable healthcare) is put on the same side of that line in the sand for those people still living in fear of the Soviet Union taking over.
The weird thing to me, is that during the cold war the US posed taxes up to 70% on the highest incomes. And no one called it socialism. Reagan came, and now it's down to 20-something percent. That's insane! When people talk about making 'America great again' there seems to be a longing to the 50's and 60's when families could live on one income, everyone could afford college and the 'American dream' was withing reach (all the social dilemma's of those decades aside). No-one ever stops to think as to how taxes played a role in all this.
Load More Replies... At some point the medical system in the US became a "for profit" system, then we paired it with a for-profit insurance system that benefited from systemically denying claims. While pro-capitalists argue that this makes a robust system that encourages innovation, we all suffer under it because of regulatory gaps *created* to exploit sick people by stockholders rather than public interests. Nobody wants to admit that they were wrong, and there isn't a way to overhaul the system without turning over that rock and seeing the people who (1) hold enormous financial and political power and (2) benefit from forcing sick people to choose heath over financial security.
It's quite amusing how easy it is to get people angry. Just tell them that you live in a country where the government takes care of you from the cradle to the grave if that should be necessary. Yet at the same time you have the total liberty to live the way you want to. And all of this without paying 99% of your income on taxes, without a government that can take away everything you own when they want to, without worries about your pensionplan or retirement, without a fear of huge medical bills, with labor laws that are in favor of the laborers instead of the employers, with a legally set number of holidays, with job protection when you get sick, with still getting your wages even if you can't work because you're sick and all the other benefits that we have accepted as normal and as our human right to have them.
Joanne Haywood Is delivering food the most important requirement you take into consideration? Also, UK is not mostly in lockdown, more like a few districts, and if it will be in the future, better for its inhabitants. And as for Brexit, I imagine it'll be like before EU, only without half the Europe under Soviet thumb.
Load More Replies... As a french guy, I don't understand all these discussions between Americans that I think absurd. In France we pay taxes. I am a professor and I give about 12% of my salary for social system. I don't use it ? Great ! I use it ? I have almost nothing to pay. Even if I have cancer, a motor handicap, even if my children are sick, even ... Really I don't understand.
Agreed. I don't get the mindset: " Why should I pay taxes if I don't need healthcare?" Isn't solidarity a thing with those people? I'm a mixture of several European countries and live in Denmark and we have pretty high taxes, but I gladly pay them. I was hospitalised with an intra-abdominal abscess a few years back. I was driven to hospital by ambulance (for free), bombarded with meds (for free), had surgery (for free) and stayed there for 5 days (for free)! I shudder to think what that would have cost me in the US. And I don't mind my tax money helping others whom I don't know...
Load More Replies... Wife went to pick up a few prescriptions today. With insurance, three meds are usually $17. Our new fiscal year started and we haven't gotten our new cards yet. The pharmacy charged her full price. She only got two meds for $90. The third one was over $100 by itself. We have insurance, we just haven't gotten our cards yet. This is f*****g stupid.
Who stands in line for 3 hours for 'free' meds? Takes 10 minutes! That's if you bother to get it yourself and don't have it delivered. Surgery takes 5 months??? Only IF you aren't urgent. Good grief Goli Soda, don't know where you live but YIKES!
Load More Replies... Making any drastic change to American healthcare as a whole is probably not going to happen in our lifetime. Both sides of the aisle are corrupt. Doing some light research will show you that politicians get rich when they get elected, because they get in the pockets of big business. Then when bills get written, politicians pad these bills with extra verbiage that sucks money away to totally unrelated projects. I could go on for days. The American system of government is broken. The ideal of a government "by the people, for the people" is dead. You know what though? There's still far worse places to live.
From what I have found out, in the US, the average family pays $600 per month into health insurance. Let's say you sign up at 21 and you die of old age at 90. 828 Months=69 years age 21 to 90 $600 per month health insurance Total $496,800 What if you are really lucky and never got ill beyond the usual colds and flu people get. That money is then wasted! No one benefits from it other than the insurance company! American Tax: 39% UK Tax 25% Using a GoFundMe to raise money for medical requirements is the same as social healthcare but with the added indignity of begging to live and basing the chance of living off the kindness of strangers. It is also extra payment outside of taxes. Hey, American public... how much did you pay on average to all the GoFundMe's that came, cap in hand, for help with surgery or prescriptions? In Europe, it is like everyone pays a mandatory GoFundMe that no one really notices because of it being low and part of the tax system.
Hey, American public... how much did you pay on average to all the GoFundMe's that came, cap in hand, for help with surgery or prescriptions? In Europe, it is like everyone pays a mandatory GoFundMe that no one really notices because of it being low and part of the tax system. As everyone is contributing continously the amount put in is very high. Health insurance or private health care is pretty much a bolt on that gives you better access, not better care although the level of care is very high. America, you are being ripped off and you are doing it to yourselves! 2/2
Load More Replies... The comments on this post are really enlightening to what I find most fascinating. I am European who has traveled widely. I have lived in a decent number of countries and visited many more. The one country that seems more foreign to me than any other one is the USA. In many ways, it is as though it is on another planet where truth is a matter of who says what louder and repeats it the most times, and where a lot of people will hold on to an opinion and steadfastly refuse to even look at actual facts. Amazing and fascinating, and very frightening.
People who lived in communist dictatorship fear socialism. Those who weren't, are more positive-thinking about it, but aren't aware of how smoothly can one transformed into the other. It only takes the same corrupt politicians, and what haven't changed throughout the ages? Politicians. Just my two cents.
Also must be mentioned that socialism is best in countries that don't call themselves socialist countries. For a good reason.
Load More Replies... I wish Europeans would stop obsessing about American politics and worry about their own problems.
America is a problem that the whole planet has to deal with... a country that big has a large amount of impact across the globe. Just like China.
Load More Replies... I am about to have an extensive amount of dental work done in the upcoming weeks. I don't have health insurance or dental insurance so my parents have offered to pay for it with me paying them back. For all of the work I need done, my parents, who are retirees, are going to possibly end up paying around 8000 dollars for my dental work. If we had universal healthcare in the US, we would not have to be worrying about these expenses. My sister has epilepsy and her meds cost over 200 dollars a month. Since we both work a minimum wage job, it's hard for her to afford that. So again, if the US had universal healthcare,this would not be a problem. Universal healthcare should be a guaranteed right to everyone and not just those people with money. Instead of crying socialism every single time this issue is brought up, how about we help each other.
1. What you have in Europe is not socialism. Socialism is what countries like Cuba have. 2. Almost ANY health system compared to the US health system is better. The US spends like 15% (which is a lot more than most countries) of its GDP in health and medical bills and gets very little in return, there are countries with much lower per capita income that have higher life expectancy. The problem is the US health system is very unregulated (for starters, huge lack of price transparency) and there is a lot of waste, that's the reason there are millions of examples like the 1s given here.
No, Cuba isn't "true socialism". Socialism by definition DEMANDS democracy and can't work under a dictatorship. The PEOPLE own the means of production, not the dictator.
Load More Replies... There's a bit of a false premise here, there is NO socialism in Europe. Europe is much more right wing today that it has ever been since WW2. However it still has policies where, in my country, you don't have to go into debt for a university education and healthcare, prescriptions, dental checkups and eye checkups are free (glasses and dental work are free if you can't afford it too) But the US has conned people into thinking that being unable to afford to take care of their health is somehow about 'choice' rather than health. Our taxes are a little higher but eventually we'll all need more health care than we could actually afford - age does not come alone. In my country the plot for Breaking Bad would end at the doctor's appointment ie he'd just get all the treatment and medications that he needed without being charged for them..
Just stop buying weapons to export your "democracy". You will find a lot of money to become "socialist" too...
European here. What about the real estate market over here? Most families where both parents work full time can hardly afford to buy an apartment in bigger cities and even for this they will be paying off for 30 years. If you want a house, you have to move further away to suburbs, or simply forget about it. Not everything is bright and shiny here.
Okay, the first thing we have to discuss is taxes. You guys all love Sweden, right? Well, here's the news: Sweden pays for everything by taxing the MIDDLE CLASS, NOT the rich. When they did tax the rich in the 1950s, it just made all the rich, including the founder of IKEA and Bjorn Borg the tennis player, leave the country. America taxes the rich much more than Sweden. The top one percent pays nearly 40 percent of all income taxes. The top 10% pays nearly 70 percent. Second, hospitals. I agree that US healthcare has some problems. Change the healthcare system all you want. Just don't increase taxes. It's great to help people, but when you force us to pay for others, that's little more than theft. Now, onto education. Everything is free, right? Too bad that now since everyone is going to college, there isn't enough room. The government has to restrict which classes you take as well as how many people can major in a subject. On top of all that, there are massive MIDDLE CLASS taxes.
Why don't the Americans look up Socialism in the Oxford Dictionary, they may find out it's true meaning
What is presented in the media (which I'm saying like this because I'm not American) of the American mindset... looks like contradictory chaos. Essentially (and very generally) it's these sentiments: "I can't afford to get life/death surgery! But Universal Healthcare is EVIL, how dare you think about taxing me? You're just an evil SOCIALIST!". Basically every complaint seems to be directly followed by an outright denial to actually DO anything about it because it's "not the American way". So ... what it shows is "I want the thing to just be given to me without me having to do/give anything! If I have to, it's not the American way!!!" - so..... they end up sounding like an entire nation of bratty children who want things without contributing anything. But it's still "Great" and "the RIGHT way of things"... because... they're keeping up the "American Ideal"... so ... the American ideal is to be... parasitic? Huh?
I don't believe in socialism a hard working person shouldn't have to have their money go to someone who is too lazy to work.
1000 is low. I paid 1300 back in 2011 with insurance and not a high deductible plan.
Load More Replies... It used to be that we didn’t like socialism because we didn’t trust government and viewed it as a necessary evil. That was before. Now half the population has abandoned loyalty to country and embraced Dear Leader, so I imagine they’re ready to give national socialism a try. We’re lucky we are a diverse country with no small traditional convenient victim group for QANON to focus on. I can comprehend what Germany was like in the 1930s now.
Unfortunately, I fear that you are absolutely right. My biggest fear is that Trump will start another war overseas in order to try to unite the country against a "common enemy". Compare it to the fall of the ruling military junta government of Argentina after the 1982 invasion of the Falkland Islands (it beats me why GB still has overseas territories), or the fall of the Greek military junta after their meddling with Cypriotic politics instigating a coup to try to unite Cyprus with Greece. Hitler chose the Jews as "the common enemy" to unite the Nazis behind his lunatic ideas that are now so popular among the US extreme alt.right groups. It is not boding well. Please VOTE!
Load More Replies... I can talk about this whole day ... if you really what know my opinions.
Now lets hear from people from Venezuela and Cuba. The successful so called socialistic countries have a huge income from natural resources....Norway...or a capitalistic economy. Our socialistic leaders want to take over the economy like Venezuela. That is my concern.
Socialism mixed with capitalism is not the economy those countries have. You are not making fair comparisons. You are making claims that have no truth in reality
Load More Replies... free healthcare is not free. EU and UK has 20+vat tax, average 20% income tax businesses 15% employer tax 17% and the highest of all gas tax US right now $2.20 a gallon diesel about 10 cents higher and last year UK canceled up to 400 operations a month, Canadians often come to america for operations and specialty care. and trump is working regulations rx have to be sold here for the same every other countries pay. and just because a person doesn't have insurance . they still have access to healthcare
If you total up all you pay in taxes, then add in your health insurance premiums, deductibles, co-pays, and medication costs, you will discover that socialized healthcare cost considerably less than the for-profit system we're stuck in now. My husband & I are both 72. With Medicare premiums & all its deductibles and co-pays it makes getting needed medical care impossible for us unless we decide to stop eating and live in the street. I have Lupus and am supposed to be seeing 5 different specialists each month to keep the disease from shutting down my major organ systems. I can afford to see only one each month, thus sentencing myself to a premature death from Lupus. My husband is an insulin-dependent diabetic whose insulin and supplies cost about $100 per month. He will die immediately without his insulin, so we go without buying food for 1 week each month just to pay for him to live that month. Trump would just as soon let us die than change the health care system.
Load More Replies... I feel like America should spend less on the military but that's only possible if our European Allies step up to cover some more costs.
Scotland's largest minority is Other White (non Scottish at 8%). Scotland is only 4% Nonwhite. That makes Scotland one of the whitest nations on Earth. https://www.scotlandscensus.gov.uk/ethnicity-identity-language-and-religion#:~:text=In%202011%2C%2084%25%20of%20Scotland's,'White%3A%20Other%20British'.&text=The%20Asian%20population%20is%20the,point%20(69%2C000)%20since%202001.
Even the Great White North (Canada) is less white than Scotland, and that is truly saying something.
Load More Replies... I was born and I lived for 23 years in a socialist country, the Socialist Republic of Romania, and I can tell you socialism is criminal. Socialism is s**t. Socialism is like "1984", even worse.
And people always forget that with all the evils of the soviet union it was still a socialist country, not a communist one.
Load More Replies... And again you are comparing a twisted dictatorial form of socialism with Democratic Socialism as it exists in Western European countries. No, we don't have a Stasi controlling people. No. no one is forced to spy on his family. friend or neighbors. I guess it's the sheer thought of contributing to a society where everyone is treated equal that drives Americans crazy.
Load More Replies... So what you are arguing for is a healthy level of both capitalism and socialism. I really don't think you realize what you are arguing for.
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Load More Replies... Imagine an analogy that doesn't fit the question to hand.
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