[geeks] Socialized medicine [was Re: nVidia 8800GT for Apple Mac Pro]

[Patrick Giagnocavo]

Mike Meredith wrote:
> On Fri, 23 May 2008 00:01:40 -0400, Patrick Giagnocavo wrote:
>> Worked really well for the Soviet Union and all its member states,
>> right?
>>
>> And we all know that Cubans have the VERY highest life expectancy of 
>> all, right?
>>
>> No offense, but the reality is that socialism is a failure.  It took
>> the USSR 70 years to collapse.
> 
> Given that you don't seem to be able to tell the difference between
> Lenin's brand of communism[0] and socialism, I think I'll take your
> predictions with a pinch of salt. 
> 

Is it your claim that socialism and communism are not related?

> Life expectancy isn't a great way of comparing health care,
> but as you brought it up anyway. Whatever else the Cubans are doing
> wrong, their health care system seems to be doing ok ... fewer infant
> deaths than the US and the life expectancy is pretty good. "males have
> a life expectancy at birth of 75 years and females 79 years. In
> comparison, the US life expectancy at birth is 75 and 80 years for
> males and female" - Wikipedia (with WHO figures). 


> There are plenty of European countries that periodically have socialism
> governments and they all seem to be doing ok. 

By many standards they are already failures, the EU with its 
spread-the-pain approach is allowing the smell of decay to be covered up 
for a few more years.

They are bringing in fresh blood in the form of less-developed former 
Eastern Bloc countries, along with immigrants from anywhere.

What is considered mediocre financial/economic performance for the USA 
would be considered stellar performance in Europe.

I predicted to friends in 2005 that in ten years the Euro would collapse 
as a currency. Not sure how accurate I am in that.

> 0: Lenin's 'soviet of soviets' was sprung on the communists as a bit of
> coup after the bolsheviks (a minority group) took over. Most
> non-stalinist/leninist communists and anarchists don't regard the USSR
> as a communist state; simply a dictatorship.

That is a pretty typical leftist ploy: if X failed, it wasn't "really" X.

--Patrick