Originally Posted by
Suzanne
Those other countries have citizens who, of their own free will, vote for higher taxes so that everybody can have health care, and education. in the long run, the common weal is the individual weal.
Speaking of entitlement, nobody succeeds as an individual in a bubble. Individual success is built on the use of other people's assets, skills, and educational products. Any employer feels entitled to use other people's skills and talents, for personal profit. Many, sadly, chisel their employees - keeping hours 1-2 below the level at which benefits are payable; paying the lowest wage at which they can get workers; demanding unpaid overtime. ...
I would happily pay higher taxes on my gross pay for the sake of secure health care for all. I think that caring for the health of the populace is just plain common sense; better health all round is good for the individual as well as the population. I come into contact with many people every day, directly or indirectly. People touch things that I touch - like the grab handles when I'm standing in the streetcar. People cough and sneeze in the supermarket. The cashier in the coffee bar hands me my receipt. Conversely, others hang onto grab handles I've used; the cashier takes my cash or credit card. I might be in the early stages of an infectious disease, asymptomatic but still contagious, so I could be infecting people who have no, or very poor, health insurance.
To my mind, the true wealth of the state or nation is its people. History shows, over and over, that the ability to make great inventions, discoveries, insights, and human rights advances, or to create great art, music and literature, is not restricted to the privileged classes.