Quote:
Originally Posted by Janszoon
I'm in no way trying to knock Norway, because your system seems to work really well, but there are a number of differences between the US and Norway which make me wonder how well that system would translate. The biggest one is population: the US is roughly 64 times the size of Norway. I wonder if it would even be possible to make the Norwegian model work in a country that is such a different size. Another possible issue is that the US is a far less culturally and ethnically homogenous place than Norway and as a result I feel like there's less of a sense of "we're all in this together" here than there is in Norway.
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Australia is a bigger country than Norway and they have a very similar system and it has been working well for years. Free public healthcare for as long as I can remember, free education, lots of what could be called 'socialist' aspects. So that proves that a system like that can work for larger countries. However, again the US is much MUCH larger than Australia so obviously I'm not comparing them directly, and I guess you can't really compare them.
The Zealand system is pretty much the same as the Australian system. I've always been happy with the amount of tax I pay and the benefits I get. To those who were asking about the amount of tax we pay, I always feel as though I come out on top. I don't feel like I pay much tax at all compared to the amount of benefits I get in areas like health, education, and other government support.
I think Obama's healthcare 'reform' or whatever they are calling it is a step in the right direction. However somebody told me that the healthcare the US will have now is still only at the same level as ours was 30 years ago, so I guess there is still a long way to go.