[mikhael]

Bah.

There's a way out of poverty, and it involves humility, sacrifice and dedication. Do what I did when I was a homeless college dropout. Join the damn military, get some training, make something of yourself. Don't like the military? There's any number of other organizations that will train someone for free and put them to work.

[EtherShock]

Yeah, cause I really want to die in a war I don't believe in we are currently involved in. I wasn't homeless, but I was staring that right in the face. I'm employed by a temp agency now when I'm not in school. Not all poor people are lazy and stubborn. It's those kind of stereotypes that are used to justify poverty when there is no excuse.

[Ford Prefect]

Originally posted by Deepblue
Yeah, pretty much. Humanity in general is a pretty lazy bunch except for the few who advance and move the world. If everyone in the world dedicated themselves completely to the common cause the world would be much more productive.

Whose common cause?

[mikhael]

Originally posted by EtherShock
Yeah, cause I really want to die in a war I don't believe in we are currently involved in.

I MAKE THIS POST FROM BEYOND THE GRAVE!

[Rictor]

Originally posted by mikhael
Bah.

There's a way out of poverty, and it involves humility, sacrifice and dedication.

You don't seriously believe that, do you? It involves being as greedy, corrupt, self serving and manipulative as you can get away with. It involves being functionally without morals.

Show me one Fortune 500 company which practices humility, sacrifice or dedication.

Originally posted by mikhael

I MAKE THIS POST FROM BEYOND THE GRAVE!

Yeah, but were you in the military (OK, Army or Marines) when there was a war on? In any case, isn't the average pay for an enlisted person (I don't know the term, you know - a grunt) something along the lines of 20k per year? I would imagine that there are more effictive ways to prosperity?

[mikhael]

We weren't talking about becoming rich. We were talking about getting out of poverty.

When I was in the Navy, I was making around $35k/yr with all my allowances. All my electricity, water, rent, food and all my work clothes were paid for. I mean, really, $35k/yr liquid income is nothing to sneeze at.

Hell, its more than I get now after the bills are paid.

Inerestingly, my time in the Navy was spent in places considered war or danger zones, but I was never near any kind of conflict. Why? because I worked the system well. The military is more than the infantry, and its more than front line conflict. *gasp*shock*amazement*

[Zarax]

I'm surprised Kazan missed it.

Let's churn out a few facts on healthcare:

fact: the top healthcare systems are public based

fact: US private healthcare is ranked 34th in the world (source: W.H.O.)

fact: healthcare, like all other basic services that requires complex skills has an unflexible demand related to the price

fact: unchecked unflexible demand always leads to high prices

fact: in the US healthcare (and insurance!) costs MUCH more than what the average EU taxpayer pays in taxes for it (you can compare the average monthly cost for insurance with the percentage of the budget a nations spends on healthcare and then relate it to GNP)

fact: there have been some attempts in EU to privatize healthcare, ALL resulted in prices going up

basic deduction: public healthcare is more efficent

basic deduction 2: you would spend less on taxes than you spend on private insurance, this reinforced by fact: the state doesn't need to make a profit from your taxes.

about social security: it's HIGHLY inefficent in the US, the equivalent programs in EU are much more optimized and it's harder to exploit them...

A few tips:

Generics keeps NHS spending in check.

Cash handouts are to be made on the condition one is willing to accept any kind of work will be offered (with extremely limited exceptions).

Also: the mass buyouts made by a NHS are usually at a lower price than those made by a bunch of hospitals separately.

Unrelated tip:

Get those wimp lawsuits out of the courts, it will seriously limit the exploits of the various systems.

[vyper]

You people, I said repeat the cycle I stated. Some of you are lathering, rinsing AND repeating.

Not aimed at the last post btw.

[Kosh]

In this country, poverty and lack of access to healthcare are intertwined.

But yeah, this thread has gone kind of off topic, even though they are kind of related.