Canada Surpasses The United States

Woo Hoo… but it is not what you would at first think……..

Facts:

The Average Canadian is Richer than the Average American. And you know that they say about averages, which means the lower levels here in America are way, way, behind……

Net worth of the average Canadian household in 2011 was $363,202, while the average American household’s net worth was $319,970.

Primarily, paying private health care costs in America and not in Canada makes up the difference.  This past years aging of the baby boomers has increased the medical costs to American society as a whole, and those retirement plans once listed on America’s books as assets, are now quickly being funneled into retirement homes, hospital death panels, and insurance exec’s 7th and 8th homes.

National Healthcare with a single payer system, appears to actually be beneficial for a nation as a whole.

Republicans will say “sure, Canadians may think they are richer, but they are not getting the quality  healthcare Americans get.  Actually that is true.  They appear to be getting better healthcare  and getting it with none of the extra expense.  A healthy 19-year-old Canadian can expect to have 52 more years of perfect health versus 49.3 more years for Americans.  Canadians have a universal healthcare service, which is free at the point of care, whereas Americans’ access to health insurance is usually based on employment, income through Medicaid, or age through Medicare, and not universal.

There is no logical reason not to have single payer health care:  one it is cheaper; two it is better; three we will have perfect health and live longer;

Here are the reasons against having a single health care provider:  less profit to those who own the stocks.

So, it becomes a balance of perfect health for 53 years for everybody in the country. …..  or……  someone else’s bank account growing a little bit more…

Hmmmm. I think having someone else’s bank account grow a little more, is far more important to me than whether or not I have a healthy life or get to pull a few extra years to live on this planet..  I will vote for Romney to get rid of  Obamacare.

Of course, expect to hear the touting of …. Socialism is better than Capitalism.

That depends upon your definition.  For you see, Canada has been under Conservative Control for a long time.   Since the 1990s, Canada has pursued a hardheaded (even ruthless), fiscally conservative form of socialism.  It is just that their conservatives are conservative, and not fanatics which has made all the difference.  The argument is still out there that “uncontrolled Socialism” might not have painted as pretty of a picture as this blend of Conservative Socialism has wrought.

The proper name being thrown around to describe Canada, is  now hybrid-economy, meaning it takes the best from both worlds and blends them together.  Sounds like marriage.

As a footnote it would be good to hit all conservatives with this hockey puck right between their eyes.

Classic conservatism aims to minimize government but that is a tertiary priority after one: doing what is effective and two: doing that which is lest expensive. Since the days of Nixon that message has been co-opted by the radicals to a single item: minimize government. That isn’t “conservatism”, that is fanaticism.

Under classic conservatism life’s basic needs are addressed effectively. Then the most efficient system is sought so the needed quality can be delivered at the lowest price. A true conservative will support a government program if such a system delivers the quality most efficiently. At this point in time, when the nation’s needs are being met and cost is under control, only then does the classic conservative oppose government expansion as a point of principle.

Conservatism in America is functionally dead. It has been replaced by propaganda designed to support plutocracy. The American government has been transformed into an engine which pumps money from the general public into the coffers of a very small sliver of the population.

What is called conservatism today has no resemblance to the genuine article. Doing what time has proven to work best is right down a conservative’s alley. And in the matter of health care, time has proven that universal access works best and is the cheapest.

May America’s true Conservatives have this epiphany and unite with her Liberals against the plutocratic cancer eating away at our great nation.

Footnote: American Conservatives believed in managed healthcare when it was created as the Heritage Foundation Plan; implimented as Romney-care; and tweaked as the Republican Senate’s Plan.  There is something seriously wrong with today’s Republicans.  Seriously wrong.  They need to go up to Canada and see a doctor.

Republicans Just Cost Me $1000 A Year!

They cost you too…

The drop in payroll tax from 6.2% to 4.2% results in a savings of about $1000 a year to every wage earner.

(If truth were widely known, that tax cut is actually a bad idea. It hemorrhages a dying social security fund, requiring the eventual death of the program or an expensive emergency last ditch surgery in the future.)

But it is hard not to give a $1000 present to every voter. Even if it only comes out as $19 dollars and change each week… But, still again, if your electric bill is $198 and you only have $189 in your account, that additional amount is, well, a lifesaver…..

But, Republicans in the House, even after Republicans in the Senate voted passage, overwhelmingly voted….. not to vote on the measure…

They didn’t vote against it… THEY VOTED NOT TO VOTE ON IT……
(speculation is that they lacked the votes to keep it from passing)..

So, how does that relate to you?

House Republicans (read Tea Party) just voted NOT TO VOTE on whether or not you will be losing an extra $20 a month out of your next paycheck.

Imagine what this is doing to payroll clerks around the country?
Imagine what this is doing to family budgets around the country?
Imagine what this is doing to businesses who rely on consumer spending around the country?
Imagine what this is doing to businesses heavily involved in the financial sector, around this country?

So what would normally happen?

Normally a group that can’t find agreement, acknowledges the sad fact, and long before the deadline, announces that they failed to reach agreement and that things would continue as they were on a temporary basis, to unfortunately allow for more time to solve differences.

But NOOOOOOOOOOOO, …. WE ARE STUCK WITH A TEA PARTY THAT FUCKS THINGS UP.

Instead, we have a vote not-to-vote, then get all sorts of very lame excuses from those who are delaying, none of which apply to the real problem that Social Security is doomed unless drastic action gets taken (higher rates, not lower), and we get nothing….

The tax cut will expire…

It is like sequestering a jury in a room, where everyone after much fact-covering argument has agreed to a judgment, except for one person who’s been bought off. And nothing, nothing, logic, emotional appeal, bullying, snuggling up to, befriending, produces any change. And you go years, every working day, to the same court house, the same jury room, they same chair at the same table, hear the same arguments, hoping against all odds, that today, he will see the light and switch. You go the next day.

That is today’s Congress. Held hostage by Tea Party Republicans who live in a dream world untouched by the reality of living under $185,000 a year. Like that bought-out juror, every day, they hold up progress with the unjustified belief that, if they wait long enough, the other 11 jurors will give up and sway over to the sole juror’s way….

Two things can happen… 1) return to the public and announce a hung jury, and do a complete retrial.. or 2) sneak up to that one juror, put a gun to his head, say nothing, pull the trigger, clean up the mess, dispose of the body, then go out to the public and announce what the 11 of you have decided…..

One is the nice way, sanctioned to due process of law. The other is the American Way.

It’s time to initiate the kavipsian policy of expression or what is otherwise known as “Show Us How You Really Feel”… Who knows? It could become the next great movement? The next time someone you know (or don’t), says anything about how millionaires should keep their tax cuts and the poor should pay, nod your head in agreement, smile a little bit, then hit them as hard as you can in their mouth, I mean as hard as you can! Put them flat on the ground holding their jaw… Then loudly say, “Don’t every talk that stupid way to me again!” Who knows, if 99% or all 303,930,000 would respond that way to our fellow congressional delegates, and the other 3.9 million of their like who advocate such madness, we might actually get the very progress we need, not because of intimidation, but because such policy is right….

For those who argue expression of violence is un-American, I’ll remind them that tonight, is John Wayne Night on AMC: view it!… I argue that such action is VERY American and perhaps it has been the lack of such spontaneous expressions of frustration from working American people, that has caused the logjam where nothing gets done because of one holdout, who thinks he can sway the world to his opinion and face no consequences… ….

Practice now, by punching brick walls.

What We Need

We need a media that tells the truth…

I didn’t know this but up north in Canada, they actually have a law on their books, that says: “a licenser may not broadcast….any false or misleading news.”

Canada regulators today announced they would reject efforts by Canada’s right wing Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, to repeal a law that forbids lying on broadcast news.

The provision has kept Fox News and right wing talk radio out of Canada.

The simple question we all must ask, has to be:….. why can’t Fox broadcast in Canada if everything said has to be truthful?

Apparently right wing news is nothing but lies….  I mean, if you have to change the law just so you can broadcast…….  and that law states: “a licenser may not broadcast….any false or misleading news”, well…. go figure.

From Dro at the Daily Kos:  “Because of this Canadian law, political dialogue in Canada is marked by civility, modesty, honesty, collegiality, and idealism that have pretty much disappeared on the U.S. airwaves. When Stephen Harper moved to abolish anti-lying provision of the Radio Act, Canadians rose up to oppose him fearing that their tradition of honest non partisan news would be replaced by the toxic, overtly partisan, biased and dishonest news coverage familiar to American citizens who listen to Fox News and talk radio. Harper’s proposal was timed to facilitate the launch of a new right wing network, “Sun TV News” which Canadians call “Fox News North.”

So when you require your news source to be accurate, you have civil discussions, sort of the way we all look back on politics and wish we still could, but when you remove the “Fairness Doctrine”, as was done by Ronald Reagan, you open the doors to Crazy Eileen, Birthers, Swift Boats, and Penis Heads running for office.

Hmmm.

I wish someone in the US had enough balls to at least submit a bill in the US Congress, requiring all news to be accurate in its reporting, whether it’s from the left or right, and then…. see which side rises up crying against it the most… I wonder which side that would be?

The downward trend makes sense if you think about it… It actually happens here on blogs as well.

If you have any assembly gathered together for discussion, and someone takes a big dump right in the middle of the floor, whenever it is that the assembly is finished, to the outside observers, everyone exiting the room through the door, still carries the sweet aroma of shit on their clothes… Allowing one person to falsify information, opens the door for all to….

We need a similar law. Not right, not left, just truth.

NAFTA Is Not the Only Difference

David Wilkins, U.S. ambassador to Canada, gave this observation to a Canadian audience at Carleton University in Ottawa.

“I keep getting asked who will be our next president of the United States. I don’t know. I don’t even yet know who will be candidate for one side Just like you know there will be an election but you don’t know when……..That is the significant difference between our two democracies. You Canadians know in advance who will run, but you don’t know when your elections will be called. We know far in advance when we will vote, but we we have no clue as to who we will be voting for………… You know who, but not when. We know when but not who.”