There would have to be hard and fast proof that those who pay in would see a significant benefit. I’m not opposed to voluntary charity - so long as the doctor has the final say in how they get paid and the rate they set for their labor. I have donated to Doctors Without Borders, the Red Cross/Red ‘Crystal’, and some of the groups who’ve helped out in stopping the spread of malaria and ebola. I chose the groups to whom I gave that money when I had it to give, and the amount which I felt I was willing or able to give. That’s the fundamental difference between charity and taxation. I’ve also given to the American Bald Eagle Foundation, Save the Manatee Foundation, and the Wildlife Conservation Society. I chose to do those things. It was not taken by force.
There is no such system. The government is, and generally always has been (so long as there’s been a thing called ‘the government’), made up of warmongering narcissistic lunkheads whose priorities are disconnected from any form of common reality. I will support focused, local, voluntary charity over mandatory taxation and government waste for any community task you might imagine. I even find my City Council to be horribly out of step with the common people where I live. Maybe my ward council would be reasonable, if it weren’t for the fact that they’re a bucket of political crabs trying to create careers of taking money from the public coffers. I wouldn’t consider our current pack of political figures (top to bottom, globally) fit to manage a McDonald’s, let alone a complex system accountable to the public.
Rather than directly pissing on your post, I just have two questions (that I don’t necessarily expect you to reply to):
Would you be okay with people who can’t pay you back benefiting if it cost you less overall?
How does this compare to other systems you do consider the government competent enough to manage?
There would have to be hard and fast proof that those who pay in would see a significant benefit. I’m not opposed to voluntary charity - so long as the doctor has the final say in how they get paid and the rate they set for their labor. I have donated to Doctors Without Borders, the Red Cross/Red ‘Crystal’, and some of the groups who’ve helped out in stopping the spread of malaria and ebola. I chose the groups to whom I gave that money when I had it to give, and the amount which I felt I was willing or able to give. That’s the fundamental difference between charity and taxation. I’ve also given to the American Bald Eagle Foundation, Save the Manatee Foundation, and the Wildlife Conservation Society. I chose to do those things. It was not taken by force.
There is no such system. The government is, and generally always has been (so long as there’s been a thing called ‘the government’), made up of warmongering narcissistic lunkheads whose priorities are disconnected from any form of common reality. I will support focused, local, voluntary charity over mandatory taxation and government waste for any community task you might imagine. I even find my City Council to be horribly out of step with the common people where I live. Maybe my ward council would be reasonable, if it weren’t for the fact that they’re a bucket of political crabs trying to create careers of taking money from the public coffers. I wouldn’t consider our current pack of political figures (top to bottom, globally) fit to manage a McDonald’s, let alone a complex system accountable to the public.