That’s not enough – we need MORE ASBESTOS!
MORE ASBESTOS!
MORE ASBESTOS!
Because they are not remotely the same thing.
First, you sort of moved passed the fact that the US absolutely meddles in agricultural policy a LOT. Subsidies in 2004 were over $8 billion.
Second, food is not the same as health care. You could grow your own food. There are many other sources too which include soup kitchens to dumpster diving. Catch a pigeon if you have to. You can also decide to eat steak or hamburger. Lobster or fish sticks.
You cannot, however, provide for your own healthcare. In many cases you need healthcare immediately or die. No real choice. The care required is what it is. No price shopping. No “fix only one collapsed lung please, the second lung is a luxury I am willing to forgo just now.”
Third, there is no food “insurance” you use to eat. Food is pretty inexpensive relatively. Yet one broken leg may cost you thousands of dollars for an ER visit. Get cancer? Hundreds of thousands to treat it. Drugs alone for some cancers run $9000/month or more.
Comparing these things is apples and oranges.
Not to mention that the government does provide for food stamps and the like, thereby providing a safety net for when you can’t purchase food on your own.
See, as an organizer with the Panhandlers’ Union, I run into this a lot. People who have never lived in poverty don’t realize just how desperately poor it’s possible to be in North America. Plenty of people in both Kanada and Amerika live in what most would consider Third World conditions, without access to sufficient food, safe shelter, sufficient and suitable clothing for the climate, or even, in some cases, basic sanitation and running water. You may be surprised to know that several major medical journals including the Lancet and JAMA have been reporting the rise of rickets in poor neighbourhoods in the US, a disease of chronic malnutrition not seen in North America since the worst days of the sweatshops of the Industrial Revolution.
You may have enough food to live, but I can assure you that millions in North America do not, and that without food banks and soup kitchens, there would be death and starvation all around us. The only reason they aren’t pulling thousands of corpses a week out of the inner cities is because of “socialist” food distribution of the sort Rand Rover would love to see eliminated.
And this will not change under health care reform. You can continue to receive private insurance from your employer, or purchase private insurance on your own.
Smashie, I still want to know how cops aren’t useful for poor people. Once again, I give you the teenagers with gasoline, matches, and baseball bats.
The only people who have ever assaulted me with weapons wore guns and badges. The police exist to protect the rich from people like me. Poor people are perfectly capable of protecting themselves. Life on the street is hard, and you learn quickly how to form a “street family” to watch each other’s backs. The cops not only don’t care about the safety of people on the street, they are the main cause of danger on the street.
… man, you live in a special little world, don’t you?
My “special little world” happens to be everywhere outside of your shiny suburban bubble. You know, I agree with Ann Coulter on at least one thing: when the mobs are tearing you bodily from your SUV, they aren’t going to care whether you vote Demokrat or Republikan. This is a class war and there’s no “neutral” side.
“There’s nothing I like less than bad arguments for a view that I hold dear.” Daniel Dennett
That is truly s Crass Argument! 
Dang… I admire your conviction.
There are lots of of examples of government involvement in food production, starting with huge subsidies for agriculture, down to federally provided food stamps. Check out the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), which purportedly helps feed 35 million people each month.
So, regarding food, we have huge government subsidies, and a large government safety net, so that (theoretically, at least) no one in the U.S. should ever starve.
SmashTheState, for example, is so poor he ran out of "c"s on his keyboard.
Hey smart guy, food pantries and soup kitchens are mostly run by charities, not the government, so I have no interest in seeing them eliminated.
Also, why does “North America” get a pass on the K thing when none of its konstituent kountries do?
Because Mexiko is poor.
- applause * Well played.
Hi, Smashie. I’ve spent the previous five years working in AIDS treatment on MLK Boulevard in the Bronx, and the last four working in drug treatment in Queens. You want to guess which of us has done more work to help the downtrodden, the helpless, those who need more than Society has said they will give?
Which of us has had more bomb threats?
Which of us has made the world a better place for all?
Wanna lay your balls on the line, Smashie? I got a hammer.
Cops are cops. They ain’t evil, and they’re here to help everyone. Do they? Depends on the cop. But both the darkest and brightest sides exist there.
Unless, of course, you’re a yapping chihuahua who gets in the way of them doing their jobs. Not a threat, just a nuisance. Then you’re gonna see the worst side of all of them.
I been places the cops don’t want to go. You wanna guess how well they work? Want to guess how well the ‘street family’ survives?
You want to smash the state, kid? Good on you. Go for it. Me? I’m here picking up the pieces it discards and saving the world with them.
Goddamnit, Smash, you made me agree with RR. Why did you have to do that?
NM