[kj] oliver / fox election spin

[Brendan]

Cheers for that Olly, I'll go through the doco when I get my internet
hooked up here in a few days.

I noticed that about the way the term 'socialist' is viewed in the US,
people were uttering it like a swear word. Suppose to be fair it's similar
to the way we utter words like (fucking) 'libertarian' or 'Atlas Shrugged'
etc ;p


> You're asking me?

>

> For the same reason you had a solid chunk of the GOP base stubbornly

> believing Obama was a "SOCIALIST!" because he merely wanted to go back

> to the Clinton tax rates. "Socialism" is such a bad smear word in the

> US, a frightful bogeyman, and  in popular discourse it's lost any real

> meaning. It technically means "government (or public) ownership of the

> means of production." But to like maybe 1/4 of the US population it just

> means "taxes I don't like to pay," which is stupid.

>

> This 1 hour program, _Frontline: Sick Around the World_, is the best

> comparison I have seen between the health care systems of the US,

> England, Germany, Taiwan, Japan, and Switzerland. It shws how other

> countries can do it and the US cannot. (Better than "Sicko.") The makers

> of the documentary went out of their way to contrast the US to

> _capitalist democracies_:

>

>

> http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/sickaroundtheworld/

>

>

> And, yes, 14% of our GDP goes to heathcare, compared to the average of

> 8% of countries in the West who have universal health care, and we get

> far worse outcomes, including almost 50 million lacking health care.

> Japan spends 7% of its GDP and has the lngest lifespan, lower infant

> mortality, and everyone is covered somehow.

>

> It makes no sense. But the private insurance lobby in the US would not

> have it any other way.

>

> -Oliver

>

>

>

> Brendan wrote:

>> So what exactly is up with your healthcare system, why do you pay so

>> much

>> over there and still get so little for your dollar?

>>

>>

>>

>

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