** Defense Spending** That is the money you spend on defending your country. It is not the money you budget for invasions, looking wicked and other such contingencies.
Socialized Medicine This is when the government owns and controls the delivery of medical services. Few places in the Western world have this system and it has never been and never will be proposed for America.
Get it right!
more to come
You keep using that word…
said Inigo Montoya
Actually, the “defense budget” is the money allocated to the Department of Defense, which is in charge of the army. If you think the DoD itself is misnamed, that’s another story, but bear in mind it used to have the more honest moniker of “Department of War.”
Anything with the word reform in it is unlikely to involve reform.
The key word there being Few. God I love being Canadian sometimes. It’s cold in the winter, muggy in the summer, and I might be taxed up the wazoo, but I can beat myself senseless and the government fixes me up free of charge!
CM
And Denmark was great! Imagine not having to pay for insurance or ever worrying about hospital or doctor bills. I think most Scandanavian countries have socialized medicine, don’t they? And they are certainly Western. (I could do with their mandatory five weeks of vacation time every year and the absence of poverty too.)
Also, I was injured in a fall in France in April. I took an ambulance to the emergency room where I was treated promptly and released. My total bill for the ambulance, hospital, tetenus shot and doctor was 20 Euros – about $25 dollars.
There are worse things than socialized medicine.
Unaffordable medicine and intolerable suffering, for example.
It is not ‘socialized medicine’ if there are medical practitioners in private practice. The government can offer universal heath cover without implementing socialized medicine.
Are there private medical practices in Canada or Scandanavia?
Yes yes,
It is the catch prases that will doom us all.
Why don’t the litereratzi of Amerca rise? Why why why?
Oh yea, Because they’re a bunch of fucking whining nerds.
Oh, and to the OP,
Everone knows what those words mean. Some even understand that the literal definition of a word may not reflect it’s usage.
Evereyone but you, apparently/
I can’t answer for Canada, but in Scandinavia - yes.
The health care system is falling apart though, so don’t start singing its praise.
But “looking wicked” is a perfectly valid form of defense. There are numerous animals whose appearance has been naturally selected to look wicked and it serves them well, as it might serve a nation by discouraging potential enemies from attacking by demonstrating the ability to fight back (even if it is occasionally just a bluff).
Interestingly, private health clinics are slowly making a comeback in Canada because the socialized system is proving inadequate. I’m prepared to accept that my use of the word “socialized” is broader than your own. Big fucking deal, you sanctimonious schmuck.
Like confiscatory taxes, for example.
Milroyj, are confiscatory taxes worse than intolerable suffering? Just wondering what your opinion is.
Why does one side of an argument call themselves pro-life and the other pro-choice? Because how you frame the question leads the argument.
What then does “socialised medicine” mean? It means,
What then does “defense spending” mean? It means,
Seemed obvious to me, a person of average intelligence so I thought your regular straight doper would have no problem getting to grips with problem. But no, it is not so, I regret the difficulties sufferred by those to whom I attributed an excess of reading comprehension.
See, if you’re gonna rant, than rant. Explain how something annoys you. But if you’re going to take the presumptuous stance that this is your opportunity to educate the ignorant masses, and the masses not agreeing with you demonstrates a failing on their part, then you deserve every molecule of scorn that is heaped upon you.
Schmuck.
Who (aside from a few ultra-right nutcases) is claiming or has ever claimed that socialized medicine, even in the relatively light form practiced in some of the western democracies, would (gasp!) turn a nation into a copy of Russia?
And if you think calling the miltary the nation’s “defense” implies they have no (or should have no) offensive weaponry… well, that’s just dumb. You’re accusing some undefined people of using a ridiculous euphamism.
You know who likes ridiculous euphamisms? RUSSIA! (well, the USSR, actually)
If I read this right, you seem to be claiming that some political labels (socialized, defense) have very precise and universally-accepted meanings, and any variation from these meanings is dishonest. Well, brace yourself, because the meanings do vary, even among dopers. I, for one, don’t think you “got it right” on either of the two definitions given in the OP. If you want rigidity of definition, you should have started a scientific rather than political thread.
Putz.
Incidentally, there’s no point claiming or implying the Americans are hypocrites if their “defense” spending includes offensive weaponry, since a common phrase in their nation goes: “The best defense is a good offense.” They certainly understand the value of projected power, even if you don’t.
Jerk.
And at what point does a tax become ‘confiscatory’?
Marginal rates in the 70-90% range, like we had in the '70s, would qualify as confiscatory in my book. And they are worse than intolerable suffering in this way: I don’t recall those high taxes benefiting the poor in a demonstrable way, instead, things were made worse for everyone, with stagflation, high unemployment, and 18% mortgage interest rates. Kind of a “share the misery” program.
Milroyj, I sincerely hope that you never have to experience either severe chronic pain nor 70-90% taxation – but if I were forced to choose between them as a penalty for you, can you guess which one I’d consider to be the more merciful?