[QUOTE=Two and a Half Inches of Fun]
If you will go back and read my posts in this thread, you will see that one of the reasons I do not want money wasted on health care for Americans is because there are people out there who need the help more - like all the refugees around the world.
You want to spend the money on people that live in relative paradise, I want to spend it on the people that are the worst off in the world - I guess I am confused as to why I am the one filled with hate?
Who do you honestly feel needs help more - Americans without insurance or refugees like those in the Kakuma Refugee Camp?
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We can’t even help those in our own back yard, how are we going to help the rest of the world? I’m telling you hate starts right here, right next to you. If you can’t show love to the person standing right next to you how will you help people oceans away? Money is not the answer. Until we all feel for our fellow inhabitants of this place nothing will change. Money can be stopped at any of a hundred places on the way to the child starving in Kakuma. Because somebody just like you, living there, feels the same way about his neighbors, nothing will change. He will say, no, I don’t care about my neighbor, he is not worthy, he is not deserving.
[QUOTE=Two and a Half Inches of Fun]
You have not shown that a public health care system would be cheaper than a private health care system, just that it would probably be cheaper than the public/private mess we have now.
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I think the fact that Canadians pay, on average, a third of what Americans pay in health care does prove that public is cheaper. The onus is on you to prove that total privatization would somehow save money, despite all evidence to the contrary.
[QUOTE=Two and a Half Inches of Fun]
We owe the same to duty to all people. I think it sick to think of Americans as more valuable than other human beings. Why do think an America is worth more than other people? Do honestly think Americans live in conditions similar to the people in the Kakuma Refugee Camp?
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I don’t think Americans are more valuable. I’m not even an American - if you could read you would see that I’m a Canadian. I believe that Canadians should help Canadians first for the same reason that I think parents should feed their own kids before they go donate to the soup kitchen. Not because their kids are inherently better or more valuable, but because I think we have a duty to protect our own. If I am sick and need care, you better believe I expect my government to care for me, not someone elses.
[QUOTE=Two and a Half Inches of Fun]
I am strong supporter of children being educated.
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It doesn’t matter how much you support it, it won’t happen if the money isn’t there.
[QUOTE=Two and a Half Inches of Fun]
That is a total distortion of my position. But I guess I cannot expect too much from a person that thinks the value of a person is determined by the country to which that person is born a citizen.
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I don’t see how this is a distortion. You don’t think they should be provided health care or education. You do want them locked away. Where is the distortion?
Oh - and also, if you somehow think that Americans don’t live in horrible conditions, you need to open your eyes. It may not look like Kakuma (and why are you so obsessed with Kakuma anyways), but people are starving to death, freezing to death, living in abject squalor right there in your own country. You may not want to believe it, but it’s there.
Why do so many of 2.5"'s responses remind me of a fifth-grader arguing that the solution to world poverty is giving every person in the world a million dollar bill so that they’re all rich?
2.5": if you’re a troll, you’re not a very funny or creative one. If you actually believe everything you wrote in this thread, then you are a very broken person.
[QUOTE=Two and a Half Inches of Fun]
What about an American who doesn’t pay taxes (and/or has never paid taxes), are you willing to cut them? Are they more deserving of help than ANY refugee (not necessarily African)? Are Americans more valuable human beings to you?
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In the first place, I doubt there has ever been such a person. We all pay taxes–income taxes, sales taxes, gas taxes. In the extremely unlikely case that there were such a person, I’m sure their parents and perhaps their children have/will paid enough in to justify helping out this one marvel of societal disconnectedness. Even if this hypothetical person beamed down as an infant and managed never to pay a single penny in taxes it’s STILL more cost effective to keep this person healthy if for NO other reason than to prevent them from being a disease vector to other, more productive individuals. Individuals, it’s quite likely, who pay enough in taxes to cover one or more other less advantaged persons. We don’t want the super payers sick and unproductive now, do we?
And yes, people in my country absolutely are more valuable to me than those who are further outside my Monkeysphere, and anyone who claims otherwise is a damned liar. I can absolutely guarantee that no African refugee would voluntarily choose to sacrifice themself to save my life, and this is as it should be. Proximity and affinity SHOULD encourage greater concern and empathy, otherwise we’d have nothing but emotionally isolated retards who profess to care deeply about the plight of refugees they have no empirical evidence even exist while they kick the local homeless person aside on their way to work. Because they’re scary, don’tcha know. :rolleyes: If it helps any, though, you are less valuable to me than the guy down the street I see walk by on a regular basis. I’d save him before I’d save you because I KNOW he exists and I can see he needs me whereas you might actually be a spectacularly inept attempt at a Turing level bot let loose by a fairly bright fifth grader. Even if you were proved to me to be an actual human being I’d probably be willing to allow you to be hit by a bus if for no other reason than you don’t seem to be able to manage a single declarative sentence that isn’t peppered with grammatical, punctuation or typing errors and yet you have inexplicably been allowed to teach the young. I’d say allowing your demise would be a worthwhile investment in the future of American education.
Seriously now, I don’t quite understand the apparent attraction in responding 2 2/1" of whatever. Lame bait that’s all.
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Can’t speak for anyone else, but I was rather enjoying the thread as started, got annoyed at the endless hijackings by ThreadShitBot v. 0.2.5 and since it seemed rather tacky to just run in for a driveby invective spray I figured I oughta put something marginally substantive in just to provide the proper framework for the insults. Not that I feel it will be received in any satisfying manner, mind you, but then again I’m pretty self sufficient and merely having said it is enough for me. Sometimes I pour Epsom salts on slugs, too–they don’t mean to piss me off and are just doing what comes naturally but nevertheless it feels good to zap them after they trash my cucumbers.
[QUOTE=Guinastasia]
I still want to know what charities the OP donates to.
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I hope you are not confusing me as Official Thread Starter™ with 2 1/2" of Whatever.
What charities I donate to has nothing to do with Paul Krugman’s transgression, unless I missed something vital during the hijacking of the thread.
[QUOTE=Meyer6]
He doesn’t have all the answers though, he just picks a choses what to respond to. He hasn’t told us any proposed solution to the inevitable downward spiral that would result from his plan. Kids with no education get bad McJobs, can’t afford medical care, have more kids, etc, etc. He hasn’t mentioned his thoughts about the fact that Americans already spend much, much more per capita than other countries for health care due to privatization, and his system would only make this worse. He hasn’t told us what happens to kids who are orphaned or otherwise abandoned when their parents cannot afford health care and education.
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In contrast, THIS is a pretty good example of debate.
[QUOTE=Jackmannii]
I hope you are not confusing me as Official Thread Starter™ with 2 1/2" of Whatever.
What charities I donate to has nothing to do with Paul Krugman’s transgression, unless I missed something vital during the hijacking of the thread.
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Sorry, I meant to direct it to Two and a Half. I forgot it was you who started the thread.