Blackadder had a special episode where the story was run backwards. From being a generous man who gave away everything he had he was transformed into miser by seeing what could have been. Being Blackadder it still ended badly for him, of course.
How about, “I pay ridiculous amounts of money in taxes/health insurance/deductibles/co-pays, supposedly for my health care. I would like close to ALL of that money to go towards my care and those who provide it, rather than most of it going to fatten the pockets of insurance executives and other middlemen.”
I knew they didn’t sit, I figured it was a stand on principle. I hadn’t realized they were not allowed to sit because of a failure to fulfill a ceremonial requirement.
Well, just to quote that article though:
Simon Stevens said that failing to do will risk voters losing trust in politics.
I don’t think that’s risking much.
This is just a lie. Adam Smith didn’t proclaim people’s self-interest based on scientific study of humans, he just thought it sounded right. It’s an absurdity, and it makes me feel like I’m taking crazy pills when people can still believe it.
My employer pays 75% of my insurance premiums, but I have to cover the rest, plus 100% of the cost of covering my wife. Between me and my employer, the cost of my health, vision, and dental coverage this year will be roughly $8,600. I am personally paying $5,800 of my own income toward that. That doesn’t include the costs of medication, doctor’s visits, or other necessary medical equipment maintenance, which would easily add up to another $1,000 in a good year and could easily add up to much more thanks to deductibles. In order for me to take an income hit, my tax obligation would have to almost double. Any federal program that costs me less than that would mean I actually come out ahead, financially. And with my employer no longer responsible for paying 75% of their employees’ insurance premiums, I might actually get that raise I’ve been owed for the last 2 years.
By the way, if you expect me to feel sorry for you because as a wealthier person you’d be paying more into a national healthcare system than I am, allow me to inform you that I also think the top marginal tax bracket should go back to the 90% that it was in the perpetually-longed-for 1950s, when the economy exploded despite rich people paying a lot of taxes. You live in a society, and societies are supposed to care for their citizens (it’s even in the preamble to the Constitution, under “promote the general welfare”), so I honestly don’t care that you’d lose a bit of money if it means everyone gets to have health security.
There’s enough for everyone’s need, but not enough for everyone’s greed. And greedy fucks like the 1%ers and their enablers want all of the benefits that come with an ordered society–like rule of law, infrastructure, culture–but without having to actually contribute towards the continuance and maintenance of that ordered society.
Heh. May told him all the old people who’ll die this winter are going to be his fault. Like, personally, him. He’s obviously decided to do anything he can to piss her off. Good on him.
And don’t get paid. I think that was crucial for the Tories.
As pointed out above: none of the nonexistent riches that the UK aren’t getting from leaving the EU are going to the NHS. Unless they are going to fund brand consultants to leverage the brand identity of the NHS in newly privatised parts of it sold off for next to nothing to rapacious “investors” who are in reality going to freeload off the state and bleed it.
But brand consultants seem a good bet to get state investment in the years around Britain leaving the EU to me.
[Citation Needed], because it wasn’t “Capitalism” that caused that reduction–it was human beings. Sometimes using capitalism to achieve that goal–but, more often these days, having to work in spite of capitalism to achieve those goals.
The only people who’d be taking any sort of income hit in order to make America civilised are the obscenely wealthy and the health insurance industry.
Seriously, where do you get off, spouting this crap? I don’t even know why I’m bothering to talk to you, because it’s plain you’re not influenced by facts. I mean, does the rest of the developed world’s experience with universal healthcare mean nothing to you? It’s like the fuckwits in my country who think we need to be the only place in the world to make it an offence to ride a fucking bike without a helmet.
“Jam your evidence up your arse, I’m sticking with my prejudices thanks.”
Translation: “I’m so embedded in the status quo, so steeped in propaganda, so lacking in imagination that I’m certain this is the only way it can be.”