Born to be slaves.

Some people are just that - born to be slaves.

Looked at an article. Read the comments on facebook. Sighed. It essentially argues that since Japan (227% of GDP as debt) and South Korea (33% of GDP as debt) have a greater healthcare spending as percentage of GDP than Singapore, we should too. Naturally, despite knowing that I would fail, my lovely MT self waded into the fray once more:



Italics are other folks, bold are my responses.

"Access to healthcare is an inalienable right. The fact that healthcare is FREE in the first world speaks for itself. The fact that healthcare is NOT free in Singapore means that Singapore is still pretty much a THIRD WORLD country."

"So...where are you talking about? The US, where Medicare and Medicaid, along with social security, already exceed all the tax they collect before discretionary spending comes in? Or do you want the UK's NHS, where one gets huge wait times for a 5 min consultation, doctors have to prescibe water to prevent hospital patients from dying of thirst, and old people are being allowed to die because they simply cost too much? Or do you want much of Europe, which is already falling apart?

Wait, maybe that's a good idea, we can solve our aging population that way. Socialised healthcare forever!

Your inalienable right...lol. Learn the difference between positive and negative rights.

Instead of helping each other as people...same old canard of asking the government to solve everything like the last few decades. The answer to the problems created by the state...is to involve the state more.

The more things change, the more they stay the same."

"Of course it is an inalienable right. Unless you are saying that your life isn't worth much."

"Nope. It's nice to have, but not a right. A negative right, like free speech or association, is something that comes from within you. A positive right, like healthcare, is something that has to be taken away from someone else and given to you. That raises the question of whether you're violating the property rights of others when you ask the government to force a doctor to give you healthcare and confiscate money from other people through taxation to pay for it.

Whatever the case, state socialised healthcare has never worked in any country without exentuating factors. Only example I can think of is Norway, and is because of North Sea oil. All others like UK, US, western europe, canada, Japan they are all running massive budget deficits. Where you have 100% socialised healthcare, one always finds long wait times, malpractice and crappy quality.

Want a social safety net? We used to have one decades ago, it was called a community and extended family. But then we threw that away, so in comes the state to help with redistribution, all while being inefficient and taking a share of the pie for adminstrative costs, so what does come down to the people in the end is a smaller slice.

But since the majority of people in the world these days want to be taken care of in their high-fructose corn syrup lives, so be it. I understand I'm in the minority, so I'll just sit back and watch things implode."

"Pool % of profits from Glc n temasek for public healthcare.???"

"Exactly David. No one knows how the BILLIONS collected by the government from COE are distributed to the PEOPLE, if at all. Road tax helps cover maintenance of roads but the BILLIONS in revenue from ERP? Families with domestic helpers pay a monthly maid levy. Is any of those millions used to help domestic helpers? Not that I know of, because the domestic helper's welfare is completely the employer's responsibility. So, yes, the PAP government collects BILLIONS more from Singaporeans than meets the eye. That is revenue from the PEOPLE and should rightly be redistributed to the PEOPLE in the form of FREE healthcare and a retirement pension for our elderly poor."

"Lawrence, lets not waste our time with ppl fr the wrong channel---i.e. "dog cannot change eat shit!""

"Socialized healthcare MAY not work BUT remember what is the government doing with all our tax money? 
 
Is there a detailed report that tells u socialized healthcare can't work in Singapore?
 
Why is it whenever someone asks for details and facts and figures the person is always told it can't be ready this decade?
 
If this doesn't set off alarms, I dunno what else will." 

"I too contributed a great part of my salary to healthcare, pension, taxes etc which is almost 50% of my total take away. I understand if my fellow citizens who needs healthcare more than me, and willingly share it. God help us that we always remain healthy all our life and need not be sick. Should i be struck with a terrible illness 1 day then im glad that i did contribute my share to this system when i need it. We never know when Clotho comes upon us! In the course of my job ive often encounter people with lots of health problems, dementia, parkinson, wheelchair bound etc and such treatments are very costly, to the extent of selling off all of what they have, even their properties. Secondly not everyone who is out of job is lazy. The co. has move elsewhere for cheaper labour. Just give a second thought that when Singapore is too expensive one day for investors to move away what's the reaction of the majority of its population? I feel the govt. should look into the citizens welfare, being such a rich nation now. Don't forget they tell U we have Swiss standards, so they should performed that Swiss standards for their citizens!" 

WHAT ABOUT THE SICK?

Amidst all the ignoring of my points and rabbity behaviour, I really think this speaks for itself. Problems created by the state...so we're going to ask the state to solve them.

Now I truly see the problem with this country, and indeed much of the world. We are all born to be slaves. Even when we think we are cutting our chains, we are only binding them tighter.