Universal health care - eviltoast
    • davidagain@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      If Johnny has 100 apples and the Belgian government gives 13 of them to some folk in hospital or care homes and Johnny doesn’t ever spend a penny on health care, how many apples does he have, and what does it matter to Johnny if his employer who has tens of thousands of apples has to give some of them to the folks in hospital instead of to the shareholders?

      If Jimmy has 150 apples and the US government takes 20 of them and he gives 50 of them to his health insurer to pay down debt and then has to remortgage his house to pay for his Mum’s cancer treatment, how much better off do you think Jimmy really is?

      “The United States has the world’s highest per capita health care costs—about double those of other wealthy nations”

      • iii@mander.xyz
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        1 day ago

        Let’s do Johhny’s accounting in the first example:

        Johnny works for a month and made 100 apples (Dt.), and 40 apples debt (Cr.) to RSZ.

        His employer takes 27 and gives it to RSZ. Johnny receives 73 apples. His ledger reads 73 Dt, 13 Cr.

        Johny then has to give 13 apples to RSZ. Johnny now has 60 apples (Dt.), and has no more debt (0Cr.) to RSZ.

        Johnny cares because of his 100 apples worth of work, he gets to keep 60.

        • davidagain@lemmy.world
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          1 day ago

          Lol.

          Johnny made 400 apples for the company, who gave him 100, the government took 13 and he got 87. The government also took 27 of the 250 apples (left after rent, heating, lighting cleaning and maintenance costs) that the company had wanted to keep for the executive pay and shareholders. They complained bitterly about how expensive it was and lied to Johnny that they would definitely have given him all of those 27 apples, honestly, definitely, if only the nasty government hadn’t stolen them for a bunch of very undeserving sick people and elderly people who were just making Johnny poorer.

          Last year, when Johnny made 30 more apples than usual, he got a one apple bonus, the chief executive got a 10 apple bonus and the shareholders got the other 19.

          • iii@mander.xyz
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            1 day ago

            If that’s the case for you, it might be good for you to change jobs or become self-employed? That way you’re free from what you perceive as evil corp?

            • davidagain@lemmy.world
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              1 day ago

              I’m not actually Johnny. I’m David, and I don’t speak French or Walloon or Frisian or Flemish well enough to live in Belgium. It’s just how most shareholder or private equity owned companies in the USA are run.

              I actually think that the solution isn’t so much a change of career for me, but an increase in the taxes on the shareholders and chief executives to find better health care, better education, better social care, better care for veterans, better infrastructure etc etc etc, so that we all benefit from the profits rather than just the already wealthy folks.

              So no, I don’t get cross with the government for taking the shareholders’ money, I get cross with the shareholders for taking my money. I think that’s far more rational.

                • davidagain@lemmy.world
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                  1 day ago

                  Why rather pay twice for healthcare when you can pay once, it doesn’t matter what illness you get, and no one has to remortgage their house to keep their relative alive?