I have selected this topic as the Progressive politician that wrote the initial law in 1935 spoke to my MD Class at U. Wisconsin in 1953. His statement at that time explained the role of Universal Healthcare in our future in a manner that defines the Constitutional corruption of the minds of the political left. The person to whom I refer was Edwin Witte, the campaign manager for Robert Lafollette's run for President on the Progressive ticket in 1924. Subsequently, Witte was the Bill Writer for the Wisconsin Legislature until FDR brought him to DC to write the Bills that would introduce Socialism to US
and Dr Sam how do you define Socialism?
As with most titles the ins and the outs differ in what a particular label means. The Socialist State has multiple descriptors, but I have grown up with the primary characteristic of Socialism when the creation of wealth is controlled by the State. Agree, that is a broad brush. It applies to my field, medical care, in what I will subsequently discuss about my personal experiences in both private and University Practice of medicine, when the vendors of healthcare provide their services under State Laws that determine how the services are provided and the payment to the provider are determined by the State agents of the State.
Words are symbols of ideas and words or there understanding can be very AMBIGUOUS! Clarity is very important. The human mind is capable of believing virtually anything! What has and has not worked toward building a better society? Or is that the objective! What is the purpose of life?
Please enlighten me!
Looking for SERIOUS solutions to the ills of society! Are there any?
As the imperfect being that I am, I do not pretend to know the answer to your question as I am only 84 1/2 years old and still looking for the right question to ask. I have been blessed in achieving the two goals that I first came to realize when I was nine. An MD was achieved and allowed me to be useful for many years. After 70 years I was able to marry and incorporate into my life the girl who sat before me in the third grade. When we married we hoped for five years, but God gave us six when her Parkinson's degenerated into death.
So sorry for your loss.
I recognize that life itself is pretty metaphysical but I always live in hope for a better world to live in and always wonder if I am more a part of the problem or a part of the solution! My hope springs eternal but sometimes it gets pretty frustrating. Still I live in hope and hope that death is just a doorway to a better and more enlightened existence. I have been fortunate enough to have a wonderful relationship with my lovely wife of 57 years and we both still enjoy pretty good health, and we had three wonderful children only one of whom we lost to leukemia in the prime of his life! Still so very much to be thankful for! Blessings to you!
Dave
Loc: Upstate New York
Sometimes it is best to look at complex issues on as simple a plain as possible. That is the test I'd use for the idea of a single payer health care system. We're told by the far left that because health care is such an intrinsic necessity for life, the puruit of life in the constitution requires such a thing as universal health care with a single payer. To test that theory I looked at something even more intrinsically necessary for life - food. Let us take a moment or two to conduct a thought expirement on this concept for food. Anyone could avail themselves of any food they wanted without the need to pay for it. Walk into the super market, grab what you want, walk out. It doesn't take much deep thinking to realize what would happen to the quantity and quality of available food. Of course, with a single payer system of food we wouldn't let that happen - we'd need to establish a food approval board - charged with the responsibility to assure reasonable food withdrawal by the public - in other words they'd need to allocate between the availabity of food and how it could be distributed. Why would it be any different in health care.
Even as simple a thing as Obamacare. It is supposed to be designed to provide more and better health care services to more people than currently done. Now, if a man with common sense wanted to find a way to produce more and better shoes for more people, he'd come up with a way to generate more shoe makers. Obamacare, in order to provide more health care services came up with a way to create more IRS agents. Now if you don't see the problem there, common sense may be a rare commodity in your neighberhood.
For every complex problem there is a simple solution and it is always wrong!.. Life is filled with complexities and there is no simple solution only intelligent answers! However the problems of mankind effect all of us one way or the other so lets work toward the best possible solutions! It will never be perfect. Education and good health are two of the best approaches! Teaching people is a necessary part of all our lives!
Dave
Loc: Upstate New York
Yes, teaching and health are very important - secondary education teaching has largely been unionized and federalized and the results are not encouraging - and health care had largely been federalized (with Medicare and Medicaide) and the expansion of federal involvement with Obamacare as a step towards universal health care is sure to provide further discouraging results in that arena also.
Making generalized statements about the importance of things, and the need to come up with solutions, is about as informative to thinking people as saying the sun needs to come up every morning. How do we reverse the degradation we've seen in secondary education - and how do we avoid further degradation in health care - what specific steps are necessary?
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