Bruce F Webster is wondering: what _are_ the acceptable reasons for (a) dying and (b) going broke? Shouldn’t we somehow prevent all of them? Can we? And what are the implications for both society and the economy if we try?

This seemed to go over the head of most of my FB friends. However, my friend Alan Scrivener went one better and posted:

No one should die and no one should go broke.

Your comment reminds me of a statement that Sarah Jessica Parker made several years ago that I will NEVER forget because it’s a perfect illustration of the Left’s mentality when it comes to generosity:

“I’m very, very concerned about the Bush presidency. I’m worried about the kinds of cuts in domestic programs that mean something to a lot of people, including members of my family, who depend on certain things from the government.”

Keep in mind, she said this the same year that her annual income was estimated to be $35 million. So, when the white trash fringe elements of SJP’s extended family can’t make ends meet, she expects US to pick up the slack, and she sees nothing wrong with taking that position. It not only didn’t occur to her that she was saying something incredibly tacky, she clearly thought she was doing something that she and her liberal friends considered heroic–taking on that evil, George W. Bush. Unbelievable. She got a little flack for it from the right-wing blogs and on talk radio, but not nearly enough.

(See, this is how society is supposed to work; families taking care of each other. Not calling up the welfare office and demanding that some bureaucrat give my mother a car.)

Does anyone here play Mafia wars?

I watched a co-worker play that for an hour once. Didn’t look like the kind of game I’d be interested in. A friend is trying to get me to play some gay looking farm game.

The Livewire
(Still a guy, wife didn’t get those in the Divorce)

Anyway the Astroturfers keep turning up to the discussion. They have the same dull boring memes, one after the other. One of their favourites is to mention the fire department, police, army and roads… the morons who post off the meme do not get it… they are talking about different things!!!

For example, take the fire department and the police department… in your country these are local. The function belongs to local govt. You also have a state level for the police but not sure about the fire department. In any case you cannot have a private police force running around competing with each other to catch criminals. There has to be some kind of cohesion. On top of that firemen and police perform a civic duty, which is why their pay comes out of local and state taxes. Oh yeah, there is the FBI…. they can be a joke at times… get nothing done… and exist for purpose of pursuit across states or at national level….with them around it does get messy.

Then there is the roads, and again, you have public access roads that have been built and paid by state and local govt, even though some funds might be provided by the federal govt. In Australia we are supposed to be paying a few cents extra to the Federal govt for our petrol which is then supposed to go back into upgrading the roads…. (I wonder if that is really happening)… then there are the roads built by private contractors rather than govt, for which we pay a toll to use those roads…. The govt is the one that actually agrees to the building of the road.

Well, these dodos argue that these things are “socialized” but the comparison is false.

There is a difference and that difference is very stark when you understand how it operates in the UK and in Australia, as well as in Canada.

The NHS in the UK is in a bit of a crisis at the moment. I think that Australia’s system is working out a lot better, but we have more out of pocket expenses.

Most of the Astroturfers mention the magic 45 million who are “dying” without healthcare but that is just total bull.

Of those who do not or cannot get insurance there would be a very small number who require some kind of medical attention. These are people not eligible for medicare or medicaid. The remainder believe that they do not need insurance…..

Another one wondered why I am so angry. To her I responded privately that after being maligned for 8 years I’m done being nice sweet quiet Leah.