"Like what you said with the gangs. Well, that's your own silly problem. We, being a slightly older nation, though it would be wise to just say no to weapons. Which means no production of weapons in our country and therefore only the bigger criminals have guns."

we have tens of thousands of people smuggling drugs, guns, and people through our borders; making guns illegal, would make guns no more sparse then weed. with our massive borders, and large amounts of money to buy anything we want, the consumer and the supplier will never let the government intervene.

First... why isn't this in politics???

Question: Don't the health care systems in every European country assume massively urban populations?  The United States has massive amounts of land that are extremely rural, with a very small population distribution, and little resources to use (The Midwest).

For simple economic reasons, these areas lack specialized health care access.  Put yourself in the place of a surgeon.  You can work in one town with 1,000 people, or you can work in a large urban region of 1,000,000.  The move to an urban area would have a number of advantages:

A: More possible customers overall due to population.
B: Specialists will be much more efficient in urban areas.  A heat surgeon in a town of 1,000 may see one or two heart cases every couple years, at most.  In an urban region, heart cases would happen much more often.  In addition, the amount of cases would allow the hospitals to obtain specialized equipment for said cases, further improving the efficiency of those specialists.

Now... a tax-based funding system for health care would mean we collect taxes from everyone in order to obtain the funding to pay for the entire system.  While it may help in urban regions, rural regions would be screwed.  People living in these areas would see tax increases, and little to show for it in their regions, since health care would be focused in urban areas of the country due to simple economic benefits.

And if there is a redistribution of health care resources itself to rural regions of America, it creates an entirely different problem: inefficient systems.  For the reasons I stated above, it's simply more economical to focus health care resources in urban areas, since that is where the most health issues would occur.  A redistribution, therefore, would neglect the areas that most need care, in favor of care in small towns that really don't need as much of the resources.

> [TI] Mrblonde wrote:

> In Holland many prisons already changed to a more humane way of treating their inmates.

So far, in those prisons, it has been working out. Less people come back to prison and most actually better theirselfs.

As far as healthcare goes, I agree with those stupid reporters in the beginning: Europe is not a utopia when it comes to health care.
But it beats the American system big time.

if I'm not mistaken, the american system has the problem that "We are free to do what we want and because of that, I'm going to drink alcohol. If I don't get caught, I can keep doing it because it makes me look cool"

or the drug approach, "I can do drugs because it makes me feel good. No one knows I'm doing it unless someone rats me out"

as to the rest, they just kill for fun

in either case, about 45% (assumption, I think it's a little less) of the people in the prison system right now are minor drug offenders or something that isn't major, like killing someone. Now the main concern here is that the law here dictates that (in my mind) if you break the law you should be punished. And then add in the mix guards who also hold the freedom act, "I'm a guard and these prisoners are under my control...under my control? I can do what I want to them and they can't do a thing about it!"

the main thing I think most americans forget is that beside the fact that most prisoners have wronged people in the past, they are still human beings that should be treated as such. If I were to break into The_Yell's house and kick his dog, beat his wife and shoot his kneecap, and run off with his panties, I'd be charged with a number of things, but that doesn't make me less human. Suppose I kill Elrohir, that doesn't make me less human. Slavery is what makes people less human.

I feel that the American Prison System is a system based on beating fear and pain into people so that they are so afraid they don't want to come back. Whereas I believe it should be a system of respect and attempting to help people out. Killers, yeah, they're screwed up, but minor drug offenders, come on people, you're gonna screw them over for life if you toss em in jail. There's no way they might be able to get a respectable job beyond working at wal-mart at 7.65 an hour

> [TI] Mrblonde wrote:

> "we have tens of thousands of people smuggling drugs, guns, and people through our borders; making guns illegal, would make guns no more sparse then weed. with our massive borders, and large amounts of money to buy anything we want, the consumer and the supplier will never let the government intervene."

supply and demand... retards need their toys? that's the main problem with the US, it's inhabitants.

the main "problem" with the US is that we focus on the individual, we produce and grow while europe stagnates and dies.

yes, avo... quite right... your dollar is increasing massively while our Euro is just losing grip.

Yup, works though...

Then don't.

"the main "problem" with the US is that we focus on the individual, we produce and grow while europe stagnates and dies."

Yup, that's exactly what GM is doing, growing!

WFS, you obviously can't base the US economy on one company.

Oh wait, you can.

----

And Simon... you obviously can't read.

wow IGP haven't seen you forever!!!

think in the 40s

or not going to the dentist (as often) ?

i know xDDD