What do you get for free in your Country?

[samboy]

I am from Australia and I feel we Aussies have it pretty good here. Education is free (almost), Healthcare is free, you can live comfortably on the dole (welfare payments), the government will pay for you to study at University.

We do have to pay University fees but the payments can be deferred until you have a well paying job.

I was wondering what the situation is like in other countries. Is life a struggle or does the government give you everything you need?

[Primaflora]

Sam I'm guessing that you are pretty young right? You got kids yet? You lived longterm on welfare?

Waited on hospital waiting lists for 'urgent' free care? Tried to get occupational therapy for a kid who desperately needs it? There's a six year wait before he qualifies so strangely I'm paying $60 a week for it.

Things are OK here but please don't represent Australia as a dole bludger's paradise with easy access to medical care. Emergency medical care is there but the longterm services are often not.

Besides how do you think these services are paid for? The Welfare/Medicare Fairy? It's your taxes, mate that pay for the services.

[pkbites]

Whatever you get, somehow you pay for in one way or another.

Here in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA, we have the best parks system and libraries in the nation. It cost nothing to go to our libraries or parks. But our property taxes are justification for an armed revolution. So, like I said, nothing is "free". Samboy, I'll bet dollars to doughnuts you're under 30.

[samboy]

Ok, OK, I am looking at this from a single, healthy 22 year olds perspective.

But I do believe that Australia is a "Dole bludger's paradise". I know many people (single, no kids) who have lived on the dole for years. Now Im not knocking the long term unemployed, Im simply saying that is it possible to live in Australia and receive a reasonable income without working.

[Fern Forest]

Everyday I go out and breathe the free air and absorb some free sunshine.

When June, July, August hit I can go and eat all the guavas and mountain apples I want. Once you have a phone local phone calls are free, in that we don't get charged per call. All our beaches are public property by law and a blast to visit, unless you're a tourist trying to visit Hana'uma bay.

[Morrison's Lament]

If you're a member of a work unit here in China you get healthcare, insurance, housing etc. for free.

If you choose to say adios to the work unit you're on your own though.

--- G. Raven

[Liberal]

We get free cigarettes and tampons.

[Chas.E]

Originally posted by Morrison's Lament
If you're a member of a work unit here in China you get healthcare, insurance, housing etc. for free.

It's not free if you have to work for it. By any chance are these "work units" surrounded by tall brick walls with iron bars on all the windows?

If you choose to say adios to the work unit you're on your own though.

Yeah, that's when they take you out and execute you, and harvest your organs. But I heard that organ transplants are free if you're a Party Member.

[SPOOFE]

Wow, Chas, what an amazingly informative post...

Anyway...

Just about the only thing one can get "for free" is water at McDonald's. However, if you are of the mindset that tax money isn't included ("They'd have taken it anyway") and anything returned to you via tax money is "free", then I guess some of the assertions in the OP can be counted as such.

[Chas.E]

Originally posted by SPOOFE Bo Diddly
Wow, Chas, what an amazingly informative post...


Oh, get a life. Free housing, food, and healthcare is available in almost any prison. Extolling the virtues of the Chinese work group system seems as foolish as promoting the virtues of incarceration. In both cases, there are victims who paid the price so that others might get their freebies.

[TheLoadedDog]

I'm also in Australia.

Yes, our healthcare system is better than the US one, but it is not free. Ever heard of a thing called the Medicare levy?

Yes, you can defer your Austudy payments until after you graduate from uni, but have you ever seen the standard of living of people on Austudy? That's why I don't have a degree, whilst plenty of dumb rich kids do.

Yes, it is fairly easy to get the dole, but have you ever tried to live on it?

Sydney is one of the most expensive cities in the world. I am working fulltime, and taking all the overtime I can get. My girlfriend is working TWO jobs. We still can't scrape together a deposit for a home. We live in a crappy suburb. We drive a clapped-out '89 Nissan which blows smoke and has a dodgy clutch.

No such thing as a free lunch.

[handy]

In the US recently some chap needed medical care but couldn't afford it. So he went to the bank with paper that said to 'give me all your money' & then waited to get arrested. then he got the medical care he needed in jail. Pathetic for America, I know.

At least we can watch Survivor 2 for free.

[Andy]

Originally posted by TheLoadedDog
[B]I'm also in Australia.
Sydney is one of the most expensive cities in the world. I am working fulltime, and taking all the overtime I can get. My girlfriend is working TWO jobs. We still can't scrape together a deposit for a home. We live in a crappy suburb. We drive a clapped-out '89 Nissan which blows smoke and has a dodgy clutch.

So move.

[Morrison's Lament]

Originally posted by Chas.E
Originally posted by SPOOFE Bo Diddly
Wow, Chas, what an amazingly informative post...


Oh, get a life. Free housing, food, and healthcare is available in almost any prison. Extolling the virtues of the Chinese work group system seems as foolish as promoting the virtues of incarceration. In both cases, there are victims who paid the price so that others might get their freebies.

Where's the pit when you need it?

:rolleyes:

And when did I extoll anything?

THIS is extolling:
Working sure is a way for paying for things, nothing is free in an absolute sense. However not everyone in the third world is lucky enough to have the option of free housing, healthcare and such if they can't make a living outside the workunit system.
Ask a starving man in India if he would like to take an eight hour a day job in return for being able to survive and provide medical care for his elderly parents, he'd be there the first day. Ditto for Africa, and I have friends from Africa that have told me they would have family members alive today if they had something like that to fall back on.
Every citizen of China has that option, most of the world's starving don't.

As for the "iron bars" and "being dragged off and shot" thing, it's just ridiculous, you obviously have no idea what life in China is like. Less than half of my friends are in work units and they were given gifts by their fellow workers and wished all the best luck in the future when they quit their jobs. You really need to stop watching those 1950s anti-pinkos government movies Chase.
Put Reefer Madness away while you're at it.

Then go to China and have a look around before you take out your "Jumping To Conclusions Floormat" (r) again. Stop by and we'll have some jasmine tea and take a walk around the local strip of the Great Wall.

--- G. Raven

[Morrison's Lament]

Oh, and if organ transplants were free for party members, China would be completely bankrupt, have you any idea how many millions of people there are in the party?

What you are referring to, Chase, is probably the fact that organs from executed murderers have in the past sometimes ended up being sold to Hong Kong and put into rich businessmen, sounds more like capitalism to me.
Medical schools used to have their morgues filled in the same way in the west, and still do in some places.
--- G. Raven

[Corky]

Nothing is free in Ireland as our taxes are high but having paid your taxes health services, education up to and including university etc are free

[Chronos]

[Moderator watch ON]

I'll give this thread one last chance before I Pit it. I think that we can get a reasonable discussion out of this if we stipulate that the OP was referring to things paid for by the government, out of taxpayers' money. Whether this is a good thing or not is not in the realm of facts, but we can certianly say how much is done by the government, where.

[Morrison's Lament]

True, it is a hijack.

I hereby drop the issue

--- G. Raven

[handy]

I read Swedish taxes are 95%. What on earth is there left to buy anything? Is everything free after that?

[TheLoadedDog]

Originally posted by android209
Originally posted by TheLoadedDog
I'm also in Australia.
Sydney is one of the most expensive cities in the world. I am working fulltime, and taking all the overtime I can get. My girlfriend is working TWO jobs. We still can't scrape together a deposit for a home. We live in a crappy suburb. We drive a clapped-out '89 Nissan which blows smoke and has a dodgy clutch.

So move.

Seriously considering doing just that. Lots of factors to consider before I do though. I could live very cheaply in the outback, but employment is difficult, and boredom is a problem. I could move to a les expensive city, but that would mean a lesser saving, but still moving away from from family and friends. Still, Canberra, Adelaide, or Auckland are looking good for me just now.

[Coldfire]

Originally posted by handy
I read Swedish taxes are 95%. What on earth is there left to buy anything? Is everything free after that? Read again. Or read elsewhere. There's enough left to buy a Volvo, an ABBA CD, and a pack of Smorrebrod. No, the rest is not free.

[reprise]

Still, Canberra, Adelaide, or Auckland are looking good for me just now.

Scratch Canberra from the list unless you're sure you can obtain very well-paid employment. It's not a cheap city to live in.

Brisbane and Adelaide are both relatively cheap compared to Sydney though.

[Morrison's Lament]

Swedish taxes are not 95%, just to clarify.

Scandinavian taxes are generally pretty high, around 40% to 50%, but in turn there are lots of benefits, most of which I have no direct knowledge nor do I care to wade the wepths of the system to find out.

However, if you start making a lot of money the tax % goes up, I'm not sure how far but I know even merry ol' England used to let it soar to right around the 90% mark (causing some famous artists to transfer their citizenships elsewhere in exchange for tax relief).

Hope that helps.

--- G. Raven

[Morrison's Lament]

the wepths of the system?

preview, preview, PREVIEW :(

[flodnak]

There was a time when a small number of Swedish residents could in effect be taxed over 100% of their income. The children's author Astrid Lindgren (of the Pippi Longstocking books among dozens of others) was one of the more well-known 100+% tax payers. The reason for this strange situation was that there was a high tax on personal wealth (i.e. assets) as well as an income tax. Please note that this was years ago. But I suspect that's the origin of all the outrageous claims about Swedish tax rates.

[Primaflora]

::hijack::

Auckland's unbelievably unlivably expensive, it's very close to Sydney for cost of living.

Brisbane's remarkably cheap, esp if you are willing to live in the outer suburbs. $80 000 to $90 000 will buy you a boring basic livable house where I live. Beats paying Sydney rents.

[Barbarian]

Health care in Quebec is 'free'.. although British Columbia makes you pay about $1/day up front (which came as bit of a shock when I moved). But that fee is lowered if you earn less than $19k or so.

In Vancouver needle exchanges are free.. if you can find one (but that should be expanded soon).

There are a few free ferries around Vancouver (because there's no bridge).

Lotsa places have free water-- I've never lived anywhere with a meter reader.. but that comes down to the individual municipality.

Free compost. Free votes. Free Jazz concerts.
Libraries are free (for your municipality.. if you want to go to another city they'll charge you).

Handicapped get free rides (bus). Veterans also get free home nursing care, if the situation warrants. Free home cleaning too.

College in Quebec used to be free.. or pretty damn close. I think my sister pays $50 per course now.. Plus all the usual ridiculous school fees. Of course, those $100 books are another question entirely.

[ruadh]

Originally posted by Corky
Nothing is free in Ireland as our taxes are high but having paid your taxes health services, education up to and including university etc are free

Health services are not free in Ireland, unless you're below a certain income level. The rest of us have to pay for visits to the doctor, for prescriptions and for hospital services (though there is a £200 annual maximum for the latter).

Taxes really aren't that high here either - relatively speaking.

[slortar]

Well, here in Kalamazoo, Michigan, we get, um, argh. Well you can use...hell, not that. Uh, well if you...hang out in the public parks, you probably won't be arrested for vagrancy if you don't stick around more than an hour so... :rolleyes: