[rollei_list] Re: OT: Health Care Costs
- From: Thor Legvold <tlegvold@xxxxxxx>
- To: rollei_list@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 22 Mar 2010 10:38:19 +0100
My mistake.
I know he works for Fox, but not that it is divided up in that manner.
Fox is interesting in that they have quite right-slanted news, yet
broadcast Family Guy and SouthPark on the same channel ;-). The
success of the channel only shows the growing amount of fundamentalism
in the US, and that conservative groups are much better organized and
coordinated as compared to liberal ones (everyone's out 'doing their
own thing', I guess, whereas conservatives all tend to agree on many
basic premises).
The Economist I know as well. Comparisons are pretty easy to do, and
mostly subjective. How do you quantify quality of life? For some
people life in the US might be better. For others not. There is a
great potential there, but it seems to me often squandered. It also
seems that the last 20 years has really polarized the political areana
and brought political views into all sides of life - unfortunately,
and seems to have gone so far as to get inthe way of common sense and
finding good solutions. There are no good solutions any more, because
the politics get in the way and become more important than the
solution itself.
I didn't mention it in my other post, but there are other benefits
here. F.x. standardized labour laws. Everyone (everyone!) has the
right to 5 weeks of paid vacation per year, from the first year of
employment. You *have* to take at least 2 consecutive weeks, and have
the right to take up to 3 consecutive, or more if your employer
agrees. Everyone has free medical (as several others have already
mentioned). While I can go to any doctor I want, the system is set up
so that you have your own doctor (making it easier to follow your
health and your families over time, and to establish a good
relationship with). If I have something acute, I call at 8:00 and can
usually get an appointment the same morning (there are also emergency
rooms for off-hours), if not, we set up an appointment. Medicine is
paid for up to a certain amount, above that limit (I think it's around
$200/year) it's free (you get a free card as soon as you pass that
amount in a calendar year). Social security is set up to actually
work, on average you get 60% of the best 20 years of your earning
career as pension. It's paid for through the taxes. You can buy an
additional pension coverage plan if you want, but it isn't necessary
to have a decent retirement income. Retirement age is 67, but you can
retire as early as 62 if you want (but receive a slightly lower
pension as a penalty).
Taxes run between 30-50% depending on how much you earn. Earn a lot,
pay more tax. Seems fair. You still end up with more disposable
income, even after taxes, when earning a bigger salary. I'm self
employed, so the rules are slightly different. Regardless, you will
never be taxed more than 50% (and that's only on the top portion of
your income - not on all of it, and appropriately called "top tax").
So maybe you pay 32% for the first $75k, then 40% for the part between
$76-150k, and 50% on everything above $150k. Of course, when you get
up to even higher income levels, you hire a tax attorney to move your
address and business somewhere else and don't pay any taxes (ref. my
other posting). ;-p
As far as the Economists numbers go, the statistic figures I linked to
in my other posting are official, and can be viewed for any country or
constellation of countries, and any time period. Same with the US
one's, so there's nothing to debate - the numbers are there for all to
see.
Fox news not mentioning Europe is not surprising, there is a dearth of
coverage from outside the US (perhaps excluding the occasional drug
piece from Mexico or Columbia and the Olympics from Canada) in general
in the US media. It's almost like the rest of the world doesn't exist.
I've also witnessed the amount of self-censorship that goes on, which
is rather ironic. For years and years the US went on about the evil
communist Soviets, how there was no free press, etc. At least the
soviets knew that their press was censured, and could work around the
obvious. The self-censorship in the US is much more insidious, and
it's much harder to detect for the common citizen. But hey, anything
no not piss off your advertizers, and to not be viewed as 'anti-
american'. McArthy would be proud :-)
You didn't comment on the other points I raised...
Thor
On 22. mars. 2010, at 09.58, Marc James Small wrote:
Thor
Richard has no connection with Fox News. He works for Fox Sports.
I do not want to speak for him, but I doubt if he holds Fox News in
much regard. Fox News, incidentally, is hugely successful and has a
viewer audience larger on most nights than the COMBINED audiences of
CBS, ABC, and NBC News and of CNN and MSNBC. Quite impressive.
Last summer, a British magazine, THE ECONOMIST, did a couple of
articles comparing various aspects of US life with that in Europe.
My figures came from there -- and the EU officials DID respond with
several Letters to the Editor, but they accepted the figures as set
out in THE ECONOMIST's articles.
I do not recall the issue of Europe being mentioned much on Fox
News, other than a lot of sarcasm about the complete failure of
Obama at the Copenhagen Climate Conference and the implosion of the
British climate scientists. Otherwise, they generally do not
discuss much in the way of foreign affairs, being a decently
isolationist network.
Marc
msmall@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Cha robh bàs fir gun ghràs fir!
---
Rollei List
- Post to rollei_list@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Subscribe at rollei_list-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'subscribe'
in the subject field OR by logging into www.freelists.org
- Unsubscribe at rollei_list-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with
'unsubscribe' in the subject field OR by logging into
www.freelists.org
- Online, searchable archives are available at
//www.freelists.org/archives/rollei_list
---
Rollei List
- Post to rollei_list@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Subscribe at rollei_list-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'subscribe'
in the subject field OR by logging into www.freelists.org
- Unsubscribe at rollei_list-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with
'unsubscribe' in the subject field OR by logging into www.freelists.org
- Online, searchable archives are available at
//www.freelists.org/archives/rollei_list
Other related posts:
