good so I'll take it as read, that you strongly support affordable complete health care for EVERYONE regardless fo income, and of course that you're totally in love with the idea of raising the minimum wage above the chickenshit level it is now.

Affordable health care is a great goal. However, it's all linked. Someone pays for the doctors, medicines, hospitals and equipment. The government could foot the bill, which means one passes is it on to the people.

The taxpayers then need to have more of their money taken to pay for these things. Most folks will end up paying more than they would pay for private insurance health coverage plans.

The poor and those who don't work or are unemployed would benefit from such a program. That's swell and fine too. I don't oppose that either-in concept.

Unfortunately, the US already gives medical treatment to illegal aliens who enter out country. I say unfortunately, not out of a lack of compassion for these folks, but ony because this influx and expenditure ends up breaking hospitals. Insurance doesn't pay for these things and so private hospitals pick up the tab, because the government doesn't foot the bill either. I know of one hospital that served a poor region in San Ysidro (near the Mexican border in California) that put up a valiant effort to serve their community and stay open, but the influx of illegals simply broke the bank and the hospital closed.

The result is the burden is moved to other hospitals and its like a chain reaction of increased medical expenses for the paying patients.

America can't give treatment to everyone in the world.

So when we talk of healthcare in America we need to address the complete picture. Make healthcare universal and free and we will become even MORE of a magnet for every third worlder with transport and access to the Mexican or Canadian border. Ships from China and Asia will be filled with 2nd & 3rd world human transport as an unprecedented wave of human smuggling will begin-with America as the destination.

What would happen? Like the doctors in the hospital that closed- they were already unable to match doctors with patients or give the patients the attention they deserved. With a waiting room full of freebies seeking treatment, medicine must be practiced like an assembly line.

So quality goes down for all.

Eventually US medicine would go down the toilet. It's already halfway there. Drug companies churn out unsafe & untested - or worse tested and KNOWN unsafe products, and the US FDA (Food & Drug Administration) look the other way until folks start dying.

What keeps the drug companies and doctors in check?

Malpractice lawsuits.

Socialized medicine takes that threat away and doctors can be more careless. Incompetent government employees are the norm. Add doctors to that list and you know longer just have a waste of money, but a waste of lives.

So what serves the greater good? Does poor quality basic healthcare for everyone outweigh much better healthcare for a portion of the population?

For my answer, I turn to Germany. Germany has one of the best socialized medicine programs in the world.

One clinic I know of has two waiting rooms. One for the "walk-ins" and one for paying customers. The screaming kids and parents in the walk-in room wait for hours while the paying customer sees a doctor in ten minutes. Is it fair? No.

The world isn't fair, Daniel. Folks will always seek to get ahead and paying customers will always get better medical care than non-paying customers.

Try and balance the playing field for all, the socialist approach, and new problems arise that make it even more unfair, corrupt and eventually destroy the system entirely.

Socialized medicine also leads to psychological problems and abuse of the system. I know an older woman who checks in with her doctor every single morning and he gets so tired of saying she is perfectly fine that he prescribes her a weak generic painkiller every week for all her imagined pains and aches. She's been doing this for well over two decades.

Has it helped her? Or has it made her completely dependent upon pills and the socialized "on demand" healthcare system?

Hypochondria is unprecedented in Germany. It's just a fact of life. Everyone, when they feel a simple bowel movement coming on, mentally debate whether its something more serious and worth a trip to the doctor. It has been my observation that socialized medicine creates extraordinarily weak constitutions.

Free medicine isn't free.

Fast food here in America causes a similar "on demand" abuse. When folks used to have to COOK a meal they waited until they were really hungry. Fast food leads to food abuse, much in the same way socialized medicine leads to medical care abuse.

So, in my ledgerbook, the paying system is much better and adds up to a healthier, stronger population and is a better framework.

The poor and disadvantaged will always get a raw deal. Handouts and charity only go so far.

The government, by keeping socialized medicine at bay, gives more folks encouragement to work, earn and be productive. Dropping out of the system and visiting the government free clinics isn't an option-well except for illegals who seem to be able to get medical care and treatment nearly anywhere even when the poor and uninsured can't.

*END universal healthcare lecture*

Minimum wage is another can of worms. Raise it to a decent level, as the left embrace wholeheartedly and what happens?

Employers say: "Hey, we just had 475,000 added to salary expenditures! Find a way we can recoup those costs! Fire folks and streamline the personnel. Eliminate mid-management, hire more part -timers and do away with the full-time health care package expenditures."

And if they can't fire or replace folks - they must increase revenues. Prices go up. The cost of your food, gas and toilet paper get more expensive. The end result? The new minimum wage still doesn't cut it and has to be raised again to account for the new cost of living. And the cycle repeats again.

Give folks $100 an hour minimum wage and toilet paper will cost $9 a roll.

See how it works?

Businesses can't be legislated to be fair and pay folks fairly. Capitalism means the market dictates the minimum wage.

My own observation has been that companies use each tax increase and minimum wage increase to put the screws to their employee roster and, to a lesser extent, their customers. What was intended to be Federal or State engineered relief is a disaster for the working man and woman.

Again, there are no free rides.

Germany is now starting to tighten the belt. The unemployment and government expenditures on welfare have crippled the economy-perhaps permanently. It's socialized system took a one-two punch from reunification and immigration from Turkey and other east European nations.

Your heart's in the right place, as are most who begin as socialist liberals hearts often are, but eventually you will see that the socialized solution is no solution at all.

Socialism is a dead end.

You too, will soon understand that all folks and governments must seek greater capitalist production, more companies, larger markets, increased profits and greater wealth. Only through wealth production can any sort of utopia be reached. Only then can more folks afford healthcare and raise their standard of living.

Germany had something like this in the period from 1965-1985, when production was at an all time high and the work ethic was better than anywhere in the world. Not surprisingly, their products were some of the best too. Capitalism and work ethic will lead to a greater quality of life in all things. They could take longer vacations and have free healthcare. Extremely successful capitalism leads to progress and can sustain greater social perks.

Simply stealing from Peter to pay Paul never leads to utopia or will ever increase the collective welfare of the masses.

*end minimum wage lecture*

There you go Daniel....my party hat is on and the confetti is coming down with balloons.

Wheeeeee! Toot! Toot!

SDAI-Tech1

This isn't all.