Hi Whispered , When my wife and I began work in the 72/73 healthcare was cheap and basically non profit . Employers , most either paid or contributed most of the premium cost and held the insurance companies in check by of all things competition .. The idea was to keep employees healthy and on the job and even the private business insurance benefitted with low cost .. We were from a textile mill village and poor, we did just fine .. People worked and if you had no insurance the hospitals would see you any way send you a bill and worse case you could pay a little each month even if you knew it would never get paid off .. Same with college , you could get scholarships if you earned them or you could agree too join the military or teach for 4/5 years and it was free .. Many employees had programs where you could continue education paid for .. Buying a house required a big down payment and banks, savings and loans did not loan money to lose it and that kept home value honest and real .. Today the last 40 yrs of government has spoiled and sold out by offering government backed loans and refinancing at way more than homes were worth .. What else could happen to all prices but go sky high .. I got debit cards and rid of all my credit cards and paid off my house when that stuff started, every one else was getting bigger houses and going deeper in debt .. When government gets involved then they'll get their cut and control .. That's where we're at now except we've had open boarders for 20 yrs .. Mexicans could come in legally, work 4/5 months and with exchange rates Dollar to Peso, go back to Mexico and live real big ... Job supply and demand is what creates higher wages, open boarders kills demand .. Not to mention drug epidemic .. That's just some things that are plain obvious that this big ole dummy can see from here .. And they want my guns (if I had any
) too ? Who the hell are they ?
Some forty years removed from America and the recall of those times isn't fair to the progress made to date.
I traveled quite a bit at one time and during the course of that I can tell you that no matter what country I was in, America was far better in many ways.
I have friends who live in Canada. Sadly, members of either their family or their friends, would need serious surgery. Rather than wait in the Socialized Medicine program of Canada, and risk passing on due to the serious nature of nearly all those diagnoses, they traveled to America to receive surgery as needed. And survived.
As for the politic of the illegals that in my view are invading this country, it is due to the Democrats agenda to make that possible. And because they live in gated communities and shall not suffer the consequences. My sister use to have a bumper sticker on her car that read: "WORK HARD! MILLIONS OF ILLEGAL ALIENS DEPEND ON YOU FOR
THEIR SOCIAL SECURITY!" People that never labored a day in their life nor paid a dollar in taxes, get the benefits of ours. Meanwhile, at the local McDonald's when I take my nephews out for their Happy Meal after a great report card, the "janitor", the little adorable elderly gentleman that keeps the dining areas clean, has to work to make ends meet on his social security. And, the most disgusting part of that , as if it could be more so, is if he works too many hours he loses some of his SS monies. Oh, yeah, and of course, he pays taxes, including FICA (SS), on what he earns at that job.
So no, America isn't perfect. Then again, no nation is. What I tire of are expats, or foreigners, who condemn this nation out of their own personal grievances, having either left here for whatever reason, or never once stepping on our soil. I'll take America over any country out there. And it isn't because I'm a native of this nation. It's because I've seen what other countries have to offer.
People hate America until they needs us to save their bacon, or help them after catastrophe strikes. We're there every single time.
Can their native countries say they'd reciprocate? Their governments would come to our aid as we come to theirs? May we never have to find out.