@McGentrix,
There are a few things in your post we ought to look at more closely.
Quote:Polling is no way to run a country or health care plan.
The value of polling in this instance is that it functions as an aid to finding out what citizens actually desire re policy (in the same manner that voting does). And and in a representative democracy, that ought to determine what policies the elected representatives actually work to put in place (it ought to be determinative, rather than lobbying or donations from powerful and wealthy interest sectors
and rather than one's own political ideology). This is surely the fundamental principle underlying democracy.
Quote:I want to have single payer healthcare.
But if the reality of existing power structures in the US makes this, at least presently, an unobtainable goal, then would it make sense to abandon any other policy design (compromised from your ideal) which makes progress towards the desired end you'd want (maximal possible coverage for as many as possible)?
Quote:What I don't want is some one with their nose at a 45 degree angle telling me how backward our country is because their **** hole has better health care.
That seems like an emotional response rather than a rational one. If you'd like to have some policy arrangement in the US, why allow yourself to be influenced by what non-Americans might say? If another country does something well/better, why not try to adopt that rather than reject it merely out of spite at some perceived snottiness on their part? GM and Ford have made much better cars through studying and duplicating what the Germans and Japanese were doing. It took a while for them to drop some fixed ideas, but they became more resilient and made better products, and the US gained from this.
* and one might point out that on occasion the US does make suggestions to other nations regarding how they ought to proceed internally.
Quote: Of course people all want something for nothing. Look at how many employable people here are capable of working yet don't because they can have something for nothing.
Some do this, certainly. But when structural unemployment is high, millions will simply have no jobs available. When industries die, those who trained and worked in those industries (eg coal) will be in trouble with no easy way out. If you get badly hurt, you'll be in trouble. But looking around the world, one can see generous social programs in place but with employment high, productivity high, and the vast majority of citizens working to advance their conditions.
Quote:More Americans want people to take care of themselves. THAT is the American way.
American citizens are not in any way unique in this. It's true everywhere.
Quote:You guys have been raised your entire lives having someone else take care of you.
That is not a knowledge-based claim, McG. I've lived in the US for a decade and had a business in New York, in Oregon and in Texas while having lived/worked most of my life in Canada. I have friends who live/work in many other countries. Your assumption or description of what goes on outside the US is deeply false. There is no discernible difference between Canada and the US in work ethic or in the dignity we all feel in being productive, creative and personally responsible. None at all. Nor have I seen or perceived such differences when I've traveled (in western countries with functioning economies and social systems). Your notion here is held as a point of ideology but it does not reflect reality.
Re the efficiency of healthcare systems, none will achieve some sort of "perfection". But there are variations across nations in costs and in outcomes and the US is not at or near the top in many metrics.
lol