Shawn wrote: > On Thu, Oct 21, 2004 at 01:54:58PM -0700, Cometman said: > > > > >You'll pay twice as much in taxes, but your medicine will be > > >"free". > > > > ..some (dare I say, many?) people in "those" countries feel it's a > > good deal. Some people in less socialistic countries feel their > > deal is > > Didn't say it wasn't a good deal; just implied that you pay for it > either way. The folks who characterize their health care as "free" > are usually trying to make some kind of point that doesn't take into > account the fact that they're paying for it just like we do; they're > just sending the check to a different building.
According to [1] in 1998 the average production worker in the US paid 18% income tax and 8% to social security, in the UK paid 17% income tax and 7% to social security. And I assume that in the US the average production worker would still have to pay for medical care. Now I don't doubt that higher earners pay more in the UK but remember a nation's greatness should be judged by how it treats the least of its citizens. [1] http://www1.worldbank.org/publicsector/tax/socialsecurity.htm -- Michael Graham Department of Mathematics Heriot-Watt University Edinburgh EH14 4AS, UK Tel: +44 (0)131 451 4175
