I haven’t written a blog post, political that is, in nearly five months. But after seeing the movie ‘Sicko’, I felt that I was inclined to do so.
For years, I knew that we didn’t have the best country in the world. I knew that America was more a country about ‘me, me me’ and not ‘we, we, we’. The main goal in life is to make as much money as possible and looking out for yourself. Helping your fellow man or woman isn’t even part of American Life, much less the American Dream.
Micheal Moore’s movie ‘Sicko’ really opened my eyes to the problems here in the United States, and not just about health care and insurance either. His movie purely shows that money talks, and that’s about it.
When I went to see the movie, I knew what to expect. I knew that we have a health care crisis. And considering that health care is my number one issue, I saw the first showing at the AMC 24 at Pleasure Island last friday. Since then, I have seen the movie three times, and about to see it a fourth time.
Moore’s movie is amazing, if you haven’t seen it yet. And I highly recommend it to anyone who really wants to know about the ‘real’ America.
Still, Moore made me realize something with this movie. It just isn’t health care that is the crisis. It is every aspect of life that is the crisis. With big businesses in control of more and more aspects of our life, we have less and less freedoms and, thus, have less to look forward to while we are here on this earth.
So Moore’s movie made me think more about politics here in the United States. Up until now I was a John Edwards’ supporter. But I am no longer. I am 100% behind Dennis Kucinich now.
Looking at our politican system and, yes, our current field of candidates running in the Democratic primaries, I notice that none of them, except one, support a single payer, not for profit, health care plan for our nation. And that candidate is Dennis Kucinich.
Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and even the candidate I supported until now, John Edwards, support some form of so-called ‘universal health care plan’ that would still include the insurance companies. What these candidate don’t realize (or maybe they do but they just don’t want to say so) is that the health insurance companies even having a finger in the health care door are going to make it impossible for the average American to have quality health care.
Money is what controls these elections. Therefore, any mainstream candidate that is afraid of change, like almost all candidates running in the two major party primaries, are bought and paid for by PACs and lobbyists. And a large part of that money is from insurance groups and companies (who create their own PACs to control our politicians). Therefore, I have no faith in any candidate, Democrat or Republican, running for President that will actually institute change in our country, except Dennis Kucinich.
But this is only part of the story (yes, this will be a long blog today). Moore’s film shows how the people in France, the UK and Canada treat their citizens. And guess what? It is a society of ‘we, we, we’ and not ‘me, me, me’. They actually care for their citizens. And not just on the health care front either. They provide free education in many of these places along with paid vacations and 35 hour work weeks (and I hear in Germany it is a 30 hour work week).
I work in a restaurant in Orlando, and we have many British customers, and I ask them which health care system they would rather have, ours or theirs. So far, I have a 100% response for one answer, and it isn’t for the American system.
Still, we always hear the Republican propoganda….’how are we going to pay for this’. This is the scare tactic that is always used by the health care industry.
So, I did a little research. And here is what I came up with:
United States – income tax rates are between 0% and 35%. With deductibles, higher tax rates can be much less.
France (evil socialists, that is why I have it in red) – income taxes are between 5.5% and 40%. And, as in the U.S., those who have more deductibles can lower that higher tax bracket.
United Kingdom (back to blue because they support our War on Terra) – income tax rates between 0% and 40%. Same with the deductibles.
Canada (more evil Commies) – income tax rates between 15% and 25%. Therefore, Canada’s most wealthy citizens pay 10% LESS in taxes and get free, universal health care.
You can do more research for yourself, but you will find that countries that offer universal health care through their government usually have a tax rate that averages around ours, maybe slightly higher or even, in the case of Canada, a bit lower.
But, of course, I am sure you have heard of the dreaded VAT or Value Added Tax. In most countries, it is about the same rate as a state income tax. Sometimes, like in France or the UK, it is higher for higher priced items. But hey, if you can afford that $70,000 BMW, you can pay a little more in taxes as well, since you HAVE the money.
Anyway, here are the taxes rates according to Wikipedia
World’s Tax Rates
But this isn’t the only scare the AMA and the health care industry plants into us. The other big ‘buzz’ that they use is that “if you have a major surgery, you have to wait 85 years to get heart surgery in Canada”.
So, for the hell of it, I did a search on Yahoo for ‘wait times, heart surgery’. The first site that popped up on Yahoo was the Manitoba Health Ministry’s website. The longest that you would have to wait for ANY type of heart surgery is 17 days. Here is the webiste:
Manitoba Wait Times
So, I went to other Canadian sites (Ontario and others) and saw that the average wait time of 250 years was a bunch of bullshit created by the great doctors and insurance companies of the United States. Go ahead and Google wait times in Canada, and you will be amazed that you won’t see the 750 year waits that the propoganda here has always told us.
Also, why you are on Google, look up the average wait times in the U.S.? Alright, start now.
Hello again, you back to read the rest of this blog? Did you search? How long did you search, about 30 minutes? Well, I will give you a few more. Just go back to Google and keep searching.
Hey, back again? Been looking for wait times in the U.S. for the last two hours now? Haven’t found anything?
Well, neither did I!
I figured for a country that says that the health care system is so great, they would at least post what the average wait times in our country. What do they have to hide?
Are they afraid that they will see the wait times are actually less in Canada? I can’t say that they are. But for a counrty that has supposed ‘long waits’, Canada proudly displays their wait times on the web.
Oh, and on top of this, Canada, along with the other countries that provide government run health care, haven’t turned anyone away because they couldn’t afford their insurance. Unlike in the United States, where 18,000 people a year die simply because they don’t have any health insurance, zero people a year in Canada die because of his problem.
So, I look at all these other countries and see how they treat their citizens. And after seeing that, I realized that we really treat our citizens like shit.
And with the way our society runs, and everyone thinking about ‘me, me, me’, and with they money from PACs and special interest groups outnumbering the amounts contributed by the average American, I have come to the conclusion that nothing in this country will ever change, no matter if it is a Democrat (with the exception of Kucinich) or a Republican.
Therefore, I think that leaving the country is the only way to live.
I want to move to a place that cares for its citizens. I want a place that makes sure that everyone is on a level playing field as far as insurance. And I don’t want to live in a society that is perfectly content with a majority of their citizens swiming in debt because of medical bills, and don’t care if they ever get out of it.
I want to personally thank Michael Moore (though I know he won’t read this blog) for opening my eyes to what is happening in our country. I wish I could say that this country will change. But, honestly people, everything will be the same.
So, let me ask you a question, mainly targeted to the Hillary, Edwards and Obama supporters….if your candidate is elected President, do you really think that health care will be provided for everyone? I ask this question to myself constantly after seeing ‘Sicko’ and my answer is constantly ‘no’.
This country isn’t all it is cracked up to be. If you want to keep going and think that things are going to change…..think again.
That is why I am starting to brush up on my French again and, hopefully, I will be a French citizen some day!
See Sicko, it will change your view of America!
Like Michael Moore said at the end of the movie….”who do we think we are”?
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