A topic to think about: America's conservatives always yammer on and on about the inefficiencies of government run programs, the failures of the federal govt, etc etc. Why then are medical costs lower in those countries where there is government-run healthcare, why are the kids doing better in standardised testing against American kids in those countries with national government controlled education -- do those Americans who work for the federal government have lower than average IQs?
Such thinking couldn't possibly be a result of years of propaganda from those who like what they have and don't really care if other Americans can do as well. Many other nations have better economic mobility than present day America - Why?
Medical costs are lower in government run healthcare countries for a variety of reaons.
1. Many of their costs are shifted from medical care to other areas of their government. for example.. they do pay less in healthcare.. but they ALSO provide education for physicians at government expense.. so it appears that they are cheaper, when actually they have just pushed their costs to a different area. They also shift costs by having a malpractice system, they shift cost by having a larger safety net for retirees etc. In America, our retirement age is about what 67 or some..and increasing. So people are not on social security/government retirement until then. However, that means that healthcare costs will increase as well. 10 more years working on cement is hard on the knees, back etc.
In many countries with universal systems,, they shift costs.. so they pay for you to retire at say 55-60 (and often if you are a general hard laborer, you get to retire earlier) so they shift the cost of healthcare to their retirement system.
2. They pay less because they have better demographic factors.. such as lower obesity, less stress, work fewer hours, retire earlier, are less sedentary etc.. that all adds up to higher costs. Now many here will disagree that its a factor but if you look at countries that have the SAME universal or similar universal systems.. they still have wide variation of costs. For example South Korea, and the UK have similar systems (universal healthcare) and about the same lifespan, yet the UK pays three times in healthcare per person than South Korea.. so obviously the system is not as major a factor as you would think.
3. Many countries DO ration healthcare.. and that's how they get a portion of their savings as well. That's why many countries have two systems.. a private one for the wealthy and upper middle class and a public one for everyone else.
As far as education: Well its no doubt that education in this country in my opinon has been decreasing.. but that's IMHO its due to the decrease in quality teachers, decrease in parental education and influence, etc.
However, one of the large factors in why Americans do poorly against other countries in standardized tests.. is because in America.. we are egalitarian. We test everyone and think everyone should get an equal shot at education. So we do much more mainstreaming of kids. In other words.. when japan or Germany takes a standardized test.. its only those college bound kids that are taking the test.. because they have already tracked kids that they deemed more labor or trade into other schools.
this has good and bad effects. The good effect is that their "less smart" kids.. (for lack of a better term right now) can end up with very good paying jobs.. as plumbers, and other trades.. they have much better education for actual work than we do here in the states.. A kid there has spent his last two years getting an apprenticeship and on the job training (that ends up being job more often than not).. where here they end up with a high school diploma or not even graduating.. and then having to find work in jobs that they have no training or experience.
The bad effect is that some kids that would be great professionals etc.. can get tracked into trades and once that's done.. it nearly impossible to get the kid to a college education. I know the problems with standardized tests. I was reading Louis L'amour at 7 years old. Rudyard Kipling and Hemingway at the age of 8, I knew more history than most of my teachers in elementary. So I was giving a test for "gifted and talented" students.. for entrance into the gifted program. It was administered by this elementary school principle. He tallied the results of the test and told my parents "you will be lucky if your son graduates high school".
I graduated top in my class, and tops in my class all the way to a doctorate and started my own successful business by the age of 26.
Now if he had the control to determine where I was sent, based on his "test", I would be a farm laborer.