By the way, there are no people with guns breaking in and collecting taxes, that's just very wild imagination. The taxes are automatically deducted from the salary.
And if you found a way to avoid those taxes, and were found out? If those who processed your salary refused to make the deduction?
Oh, there would be stages, legal actions, fines, and so forth. But in the end, and this is vital for everyone to understand about any government, their will is enforced with guns.
Because you are law-abiding, and like most of us, thoroughly pacified, the gun is not much in evidence. But I assure, you it is there. And in extremis, it would be used to compel your obedience.
Again, this is fundamental to all government above the level of an extended family group. Ultimately, the compliance of the dissenting members is always enforced with the threat of deadly force. This is why martial law in national emergencies is always an option, and the definition of "emergency" is in the hands of government.
So in short, the system really works, everyone here has excellent health coverage and the bad news for you, everyone is thrilled about it, rich and poor, employed or unemployed and the French will give up their their daily baguette before giving up their health system.
Actually I have met quite a number of people, including medical providers who have stated emphatically that your system is best avoided.
So apparently, not everyone is enchanted.
As a purely subjective aside, I will comment in passing that I saw a television production recently partly set in a British hospital. I kept losing the plot because the setting seemed so antiquated that it was distracting.
edit: If you think that I'm paying taxes for those who never make an effort to work and pay taxes, so be it. I'm not going to sit here and enjoy my new computer bought by the money that I saved from taxes, knowing that with that money I could have saved some of my fellow citizens from illness and suffering.
What about your old computer? Could that not be sacrificed for the poor and the sick? What about your dressy clothing? Snack food? Television? Vacation pay? When they die, why not bury family members naked in a sack? Surely, there is no justification for funeral expenses when there are people in need!
What you are saying, is that your welfare as a productive ember of the population is valueless, and everything you own that in any manner improves your lot above that of the meanest beggar is an affront.
Myself, I do not believe that, and assert that you should have that benefit of your wages, including the benefit of making reasonable charitable contributions.
The alternative is to enter into a downward spiral of irreducible feelings of guilt until you lose functionality and are of no use to anyone.
And by the way, I don't believe that people simply decide not to work.
Then, you live in a fantasy world, and need to be rescued.
I have been involved with public health, I am occasionally a jail guard, I am an emergency medical technician, I have taken in homeless persons from the street, and I've watched friends I loved carted off in shackles for their failings.
I can assure you, that there is a strong contingent of people in any society, perhaps the majority, who given the chance and encouragement, will sink to the lowest level of functionality possible while still maintaining an acceptable level of comfort.
This is why societies require moral codes, why certain behaviors must cause people to be ostracized, why self respect is thousand of times more vital than self esteem, and why it is self destructive for a free nation to remove the stigma of undesirability from poverty in periods of general plenty.
As I mentioned in an earlier post, there are lots of reasons why some people can never make it. Depression is one of them, then of course, discrimination (race, physical appearance, age) , economical crises and have you thought that some people are simply dumb ? so dumb people should perhaps just suffer?
I used to have a relative through marriage who was mentally challenged, the father of a number of children, a husband and a successful tile setter, who as I recall ran his own business. He made no silly excuses for himself, he did not wallow in self pity, he achieved. Were he alive today, I have little doubt that the current system would have left him a lifelong ward of the state and general failure-- all in the name of general, shallow beneficence.
Again, if you give the people you mentioned the opportunity and the encouragement, they would almost all meet your expectations, which when you face the matter squarely, is that they stay in their place, do as they're told, accept your largess, and don't make a fuss: the Tyranny of the Self-Congratulatory Elite.
Obliviously, everyone needs help from time to time, and some people more than others. But no society can thrive if it attempts to give away more than it requires to maintain its productive elements. There are always limits and hard choices to be made. Pretending that Life works otherwise, will not compel it to do so.
Thus poverty for all but the most physically and mentally deficient must be seen as a transitory condition for which they have the primary responsibility. It must be accepted that there are always more problems in society than there are resources to address them all.
And the productive must be left to enjoy the bulk of their profits, if they are to
remain productive.
