Phil wrote:

4. Now we want cheap prescription drugs and healthcare. Guess who
pays, companies, you and I in the form of taxes, and those who buy our
products. Nothing from the government is free, it’s our tax money!

Now, if the government would _shorten_ drug patent length to encourage
generic medicines and allow foreign dugs to be imported you would have a
point.

The government, though, is taking the side of the big business (drug
companies) and so that's what's really pushing the costs of health care
up. This has nothing to do with taxes.

5. We want our companies to give us free health, life, dental and
vision insurance, higher pensions, retirement health care, long term
disability…… It all goes into the bottom line so our products are
more expensive.

This is not a new concept... I would buy it if everyione had started
demanding health care in recent years. What is truly happening is health
care cost is going up, with benefits going down. How do you explain
that?

What really ****es me off these days is people want cheaper
healthcare insurance.

Actually we want insureance prices not ro rise. Where is the big
movement for cheaper health insurance?

There are lots of examples, though, of health insurance costs rising so
much that companies have started to pass most of (or all of) the
insurance costs to the employee. Simply look at the grocery worker case
in southern California.

So we have no or low co-payments, but it’s now
costing us weekly premiums out of our paychecks cause everybody goes
to the Dr. when they sneeze.

You DO have the option of not belonging to a health insurance plan you
know. Why not just get out of it?

The people that use the service should
pay.

Do you even know what the business model of insurance is???? Jeeez!

Everybody else should pay a reasonable amount for the risk of a
costly medical issue.

There are plans for that. If that's what you really want, get out of
your HMO/PPO and join one of those you describe. There are dirt cheap
plans that come with a $5000/year deductible. This is exactly what you
describe. Don't attack HMOs because the "M" in "HMO" stands for
"maintenance, which means "regular doctor visits."

There is a large portion of our society that
beats the drum of socialism that doesn’t label it socialism.

Absolutely, this surprises you?

11. Nothing will change until each person takes responsibility for
themselves and their family, ask less of their employeer, local, state
and federal government.

Won't happen. Governments exist precisely because this will never
happen.

If you don't have police, the dirt bag with the bigger gun will win. If
you do not have structured laws and a court system to enforce them you
have no progress. If you want to live a life without outside support at
all (ie, from the govt), you better set up a farm, and buy lots of guns.

US product we buy is made up of wages, taxes and benifits. A business
is considered successfull if they profit 10 cents on the dollar. Oh,
buy the way, that 10 cents of profit comes to you and me in our mutual
funds, pensions (equities), Certificate of Deposits.........

Dude, you need to study economics. This makes no sense.

Free enterprise works, trouble is the rest of the world hasn't gotten
social security, welfare, healthcare, good roads yet so their cheaper.
So we buy from them more and more.

You really, really, really need to study economics. This is not how the
world works. Chinese labor is NOT cheaper because they pay less for
medical insurance. The solution to our problem is NOT to let our roads
deteriorate to an Afghanistan level. You need to study economics.

--
gabriel