Quote from: darkangel11 on December 26, 2017, 07:19:21 PM

So you're supporting socialism, did I read it right?

What you call socialism would be termed social democracy here, and actually, in Spain there are a lot of actual socialists (not social democrats) and a decent amount of the voter base is communist. Actual communists.

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I'm not putting the US on a pedestal here as it's still taking a huge part of your salary and not giving a lot in return. I'm rather looking the other way round as there are countries not far from Spain that still have free education and healthcare and aren't forcing you to give away 1/4 of your income,

Actually, there isnt any such country. Spain is one of the countries which have considerably lower taxes in europe.

And, in other countries outside europe which have low income tax rates but still provide full coverage of free services, these are generally funded via corporate taxes.

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Do you really like the idea of depending on the government to provide these services?

Actually i am a big enthusiast of it.

Leaving aside the fact that the 'bad government, good 'market'' thing is a religious belief which pertains pretty much only to US political discourse:

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I'd rather have the money and the ability to pay at the time of need instead of letting others decide whether I do or do not.

Every single private corporation in a private market will have profit maximization at any cost as their target.

Which, creates circumstances like in US, where someone can die $50 short of a diabetes drug, or a medium grade operation can cost over $50,000 whereas one night in hospital can cost in between $3000-$7000 (the latest is old statistic, its probably higher now).

Without even entering the topic of selling lead painted toys, or instigating wars on lies to profit from weapon sales and the stuff like that.

.........

A government is beholden to its voters. Screw them, and an informed electorate will screw you well, and even they will elect a government to properly prosecute your hide for what you did to them.

A private corporation is not beholden to anybody - it can choose to sell drugs to 300 million people, knowing that it will kill hundreds of thousands of people from side effects, which they will move to prevent anyone from leaking through bribery and harassment, kill over 150,000 people due to heart attacks resulting from their drug, get discovered, prosecuted by government, get fined $4 billion for killing 150,000 people, and still make $11 billion net profit in the process.

That's what Glaxo Smith Klein did in US. You dont even know about this, because you didnt hear it since it wasnt made major news in premium corporate media. Its bad for joint investments of their majority shareholders after all...

So yeah, instead of a private corporation which would seek out profiting at any cost, i would much rather trust my government to handle my affairs, because at least i have the power to place them, depose them, and prosecute them if necessary. A politician is responsible with what s/he does. In contrast, a private citizen running a private company has much, much reduced responsibility.

It is understandable that there is a great distrust in government in US, because government and private sector have revolving doors in between them and lobbyist money basically makes the laws. And electorate doesnt mean zit, because it takes money to run an election campaign, and its not the people who have the money. It is natural that you vote, vote, and vote, but things never change.

However this also has been your mistake - you bought the 'evil government' discourse, and let the people who wanted to create exactly this environment in which you would be powerless against big, massive money, take the helm.