401–410 of 468 posts
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> CA is already dealing with severe budget issues [2][3], False. California has a budget surplus of nearly $3 billion and will be able to weather a mild recession without major budget cuts or tax increases for the next 4 years.
Jerry Brown says there is a projected 1.6 billion dollar deficit. Where did you get your numbers from? http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-pol-sac-jerry-brown-budge...
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In almost all European countries, its provided by the government and funded by taxation. My point stands.
Netherlands, Germany and Switzerland are 3 counter examples.
In effect, it's not that different from a single-payer system funded by a progressive income tax. I have thought the German system might be a better fit for the US, since sickness funds can still compete with each other, mostly on customer service and the like.
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Even easier if people could just let others take care of _every_ whim. If there was a guaranteed income there wouldn't even be a need for entrepreneurship!
If you'd like to see what people actually would do with money provided by a basic income program, here are the results of a survery conducted by GiveDirectly, a company piloting the idea in Kenya. It seems that despite your conjecture, there are a number of people investing the income into education, fishing nets, seeds for crops/livestock, fishing nets, beauty salon's, etc. In my experience, poor people are the worl…
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I don't think anyone disagrees that single payer requires higher taxes than we currently pay. so given that, you're trying to tell me that a state with the highest taxes (much much higher than #2) in the nation, with the lowest housing affordability will attract more entrepreneurs than before? why? because the young and invincible will be choose cheaper healthcare over being able to live comfortably? I highly doubt i…
CA #1? What are you talking about? The state with the highest tax burden is NY. CA doesn't even make it to the top 10. https://wallethub.com/edu/states-with-highest-lowest-tax-bur...
[http://www.cpapracticeadvisor.com/news/12281147/irs-income-t...]
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> Yes. Ideally, that's what governments should do: require citizens to act in our collective and long-term best interests, not only their own. That's starting to sound a lot like Marxism where the value of the individual is less so than that of the collective (Government / State). I'm sorry but no thanks. Who determines what our best interest is? The only person on this planet that can determine my best interest is m…
It's starting to sound like civilization. When we live together, I don't want to subsidize your poor decisions. If you want to live your life alone in a forest somewhere, you can pay no tax and make all your own decisions.
Healthcare is a SERVICE that someone PROVIDES to you for MONEY. It has a tangible COST. It is not a RIGHT which is something that WE as a COLLECTIVE have determined WE individually possess (liberty, right to bare arms, freedom of press, right to assemble, etc)
That is the bedrock issue behind all the arguments on this topic and why (despite idealistically admirable), universal healthcare will likely never happen...
To make it clear, personally I am not opposed to doing everything we can as a society to bring the cost of healthcare down and make it available and affordable to as many people as possible. But to guarantee blanket coverage for ~325M people is not realistic.
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So... are you one of the "Freemen on the land"?
No.
And, if we all chip in, we can have nice things. Roads, water, electricity, museums, libraries, courts, police, etc.
Is that bad?
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I wouldn't mind paying more taxes in order to provide others with something I consider a human right. Under single-payer, CA employers will no longer need to provide insurance for their employees. That money could in some way pay for this. It also makes the idea of a 'gig economy' much more palatable, since people working in short-term / part-time situations will no longer have to go without employer-provided insuran…
California is already running a budget deficit, in part because of the health subsidies it already provides. Also, it allows voluntary contributions, so you can already pay more taxes: https://www.ftb.ca.gov/individuals/vcfsr/vcf_faqs.shtml Thus far I have been able to resist the tempation to do so.
That's for charitable contributions...