How much should we spend on social programs?

[celtic_crippler]

Our governmnet also said if less people smoked health care costs would decline. Has it?



WARNING: Drink the Kool-Aid at your own risk :drinkbeer

 

[CanuckMA]

cdunn,

The major contributor to all the tests being done are the lawyers.

You show up to the doc and complain of having had a headache for a week. He takes yout BP and it's sky high. Most likely cause of the headache is high BP. But to CYA, the dic orders an MRI just to prove it's not a tumor, because if you sue, the doc has to be able to show he's done everything.

 

[cdunn]

cdunn,

The major contributor to all the tests being done are the lawyers.

You show up to the doc and complain of having had a headache for a week. He takes yout BP and it's sky high. Most likely cause of the headache is high BP. But to CYA, the dic orders an MRI just to prove it's not a tumor, because if you sue, the doc has to be able to show he's done everything.

Defensive medicine is an issue - however, you do have the choice to not get the MRI - after all, it's expensive, but you're not going to be paying for it directly, so you get it. But let's look at the next step. You've got high blood pressure. He tells you to come back in in x days, checks it again, and if it's still high, puts you on a statin for the next twenty years. Maybe he tries to talk you onto a diet and some exercise, but you never do it. You go on the generic five years in, but it doesn't work. So you go back to the brand name. And you've spent thousands of dollars on the statins instead of taking a walk around town a couple nights a week.

It's a free market. The health care providers are just giving us what we're wiling to get other people to pay for.

 

[JDenver]

Our governmnet also said if less people smoked health care costs would decline. Has it?



WARNING: Drink the Kool-Aid at your own risk :drinkbeer

Uhhh....no, it hasn't, because lots of people stopped smoking and instead started drinking, eating garbage and not exercising. Oh, and big pharma wants everyone to take pills for having dry eyeballs and itchy feet.

 

[5-0 Kenpo]

I don't think the issue is how much to spend on social programs, but who is the distributor of the benefits.

If you say the government, especially on the federal side in the U.S., you will always be subject to the whim of politicians who often live hundreds or thousands of miles away from you, who continually bow to the pressures of lobbyists. Is that the way to go?

Even were I to agree with a form of governmental social programs, it would be at the local level. Let's take all of the money that we give to the Federal government for such things, give them to the state/county/city governments where we could actually hold the politicians accountable for screwing up the programs.

 

[Bruno@MT]

Aye. The closer to home, the better. It's probably better to let the states handle this individually, just like European countries do this themselves. The only thing that -could- be decided at federal level is -that- certain social programs should be in place.

 

[5-0 Kenpo]

Aye. The closer to home, the better. It's probably better to let the states handle this individually, just like European countries do this themselves. The only thing that -could- be decided at federal level is -that- certain social programs should be in place.

I get that, but ask teachers about unfunded mandates (No Child Left Behind), or Federal regulations which costs the states billions (imprisonment of illegal immigrants).

I am also a Constitutionalist. If it ain't in there, the Congress has no right to force the states to do it. But that's just me.

 

[Flea]

Not to be a thread necromancer, but when I came across this article I had to share it here ... it's just too perfect.

http://www.boingboing.net/2009/07/31/rich-ny-town-tries-t.html

Marilyn sez, "The East Hampton Library on Long Island wants to add a children's room, but the East Hampton Village Zoning Board has blocked it for a year, even though the money for the expansion ($4 mil) has been already been raised by private donations. What's their objection to a children's room at the library?

Library Director Dennis Fabiszak has said that the East Hampton Village Board of Zoning Appeals has expressed concern that an expanded children's collection would lead to more library usage by those who live in the less affluent areas of Springs and Wainscott... The proposed 6,800-square-foot addition to a community that includes Martha Stewart, Rudolph Giuliani, and Katie Couric as summer residents would enable the library to add 10,000 additional children's books to the library's collection. Last year, the Long Island library ranked last for books available per child...
The library serves not only the Village of East Hampton but also the less affluent communities of Springs and Wainscott.
​

 

[teekin]

Flea, thank you for an excellent example of why Elder should stop eating puppies and start eating people. Please start with Martha Stewart. Martha Stew, it's a Good Thing.:burp:
lori

 

[still learning]

Hello, In the end we all pay the cost..either way...

The middle class NEVER gets any REAL help....just the poor...and they (government) uses the middle class taxes to fund there program to help others...

What is "right" or "fair" ?....oops only congress knows for sure?????

Where is it? ...that government can prove...they KNOW better?

Democrate country or Republic country? ...do you know the difference...here?

WE NEED to go back as a Republic country...first...Aloha,

PS: Republic we stand...for one nation....under someone...and so on...

 

[DergaSmash]

The solution is actually pretty easy.

1. Stop trying to police the world. I get a strong military is important but America doesn't need to babysit the world.

2. Legalize drugs and tax the hell out of them. Use some of that money for rehab programs for the more serious addictive drugs like heroin and cocaine. Not only would it generate new revenue for the government to use, it would cut the 50 billion dollar a year war on drug spending. It would also reduce the amount of prisons we operate or contract out. 60% of all prisoners in state and federal prisons are NON-VIOLENT drug offenders. Besides legalizing takes the teeth out of the black market and it's operators. (Prohibition & Al Capone anyone? How well did that work out?) This would also create jobs. The government would need growers/producers and retailers of these products.

3. Provide tax relief to farmers that grow hemp. Hemp, unlike it's cousin cannibis, has no value as a recreational/medicinal drug. What it does have is potential for everything else. It can grow almost everywhere, requires little in terms of assistance, and is easily renewable. Not only this but from hemp we can make: paper, textiles, rope, plastics, biodiesel fuel, and food. The seeds of the hemp plant are one of the rare plants that contains a full amino acid profile and lots of protein. This would also help kill our addiction to foreign oil. America is the only industrialized nation in the world that doesn't grow it's own hemp, we pay extra to import it.

The money that this would save & produce would give a serious boost to things like education and health care. 2 things that our country seriously lacks.