Harry, And what does your race blather have to do with jobs, education, employment? Other than in the Zen way that everything is related to everything else? An ex-lurker, Bruce Leier
-----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]On Behalf Of Harry Pollard Sent: Sunday, December 23, 2001 12:47 PM To: Christoph Reuss; [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: Fwd: WTO/GATS - a Coup against Democracy At 12:52 AM 12/22/2001 +0100, Christopher Reuss wrote: >Harry Pollard wrote: > > > > Of course, > > > > actually taking on the Fat Cats awash in privilege might be even more > > > > worthwhile, but that's difficult so let's try something easier. > > >[CR:] > > >On the contrary -- the WTO represents the fattest cats and is the most > > >difficult 'target'. > > > > Such as? > >Such as representatives/puppets of the largest transnational corporations >who "negotiate" behind closed doors and without any public accountability. Don't blather, Chris - name them. > > Your country is fortunate - like Sweden - not to be involved in a World > > War. You cannot help but profit from others misery - for which I don't > > blame either country, though perhaps the 'planes that bombed London > > contained Swedish steel - as well as Russian fuel. > > > > But, without doubt, the two countries came out of the war in good shape, > > whereas Britain and, I suppose, most European countries, were close to > > bankruptcy. So, you invested in social services and they are good. > >The US also came out of the war in good shape (even benefited from it), >but has no good health services (for the majority of citizens, anyway). >Germany suffered much worse destructions in the war than the UK (and had >to pay billions of reparations unlike UK), but has better health services >now. It seems that your lame excuse can't explain reality. The revolution in Germany after the war was the Erhart free market revolution. While Britain was mired in the "wave of the future" - socialism - Germany's free market policies were producing the real future (or would have done, perhaps, had Europe become an American type tariff free internal market, rather than a political monstrosity). > > Yet, my health services are also good - and probably as good, or better, > > than yours. Of course, I have to pay for it - but I probably pay less than > > you. > >Actually, the US spends more on health care and gets less for that money >than any industrialized country that offers medical insurance for everyone: >The US spends 74% more than France; 78% more than Germany, and 110% more >than the Netherlands. However, the US rated worst in an international >comparison of general healthcare quality, and 44 million Americans *lack* >healthcare coverage. I've read that in the US, people die from appendicitis >--a trivial complication in developed countries-- because they can't afford >to go to hospital for appendectomy. Most people in the US do well with health care. However, we have problems that Europe is, perhaps, only just beginning to have. The general figures for the US are skewed by the inner cities, which areas I referred to in my last post. These are mostly black, though particularly in the south-west and perhaps New York City, brown is beginning to make itself felt. I believe that browns are close to half the population of Los Angeles Browns are noted in Los Angeles for drive-by shootings, where invariably they shoot innocent people - notably children. I have cruelly suggested that we haul in the brown gangs and teach them to shoot accurately. The they'll shoot each other rather than the innocents. It's difficult not to get furious when the picture of yet another little kid is shot while playing on the sidewalk. There are a lot of blacks in jail, a condition which gets American liberals into a flutter of indignation. Yet, the trouble is that 80% of violent crimes are committed by blacks, who are about 12% of the population. How do we know? Economists, politicians and others shouldn't pay so much uncritical attention to statistics - like your 44% figure. Just isn't true. Such figures are usually concocted by governments anxious to prove that their government systems are best. So, how do we know? Well, the best thing to do is to infer a conclusion from statistics that relate to something else, in this case, victims. Some 80% of the victims of violent crimes are black. I hope no-one thinks that gangs of whites go into the ghetto to beat up old black women and take their welfare money. Unfortunately, it is black killing black. Also, I would bet that a lot of black victims don't report violent crimes because they don't trust the police. An inference that is more tenuous is that the crimes that are reported are probably serious, requiring hospital and automatic reporting. The umpteen smaller crimes are mostly forgotten - except by the Probably 99% plus of both black and brown people go about their business like people everywhere and deserve more protection from the thugs in their midst. So, what happens when they are hurt? Do they lay there waiting for an appendix operation? Of course not - an ambulance takes them to a hospital, which probably resembles state hospitals everywhere (albeit with more gun, knife, and beating, cases than in other countries). I suppose this is where young interns get practice for the colorless world outside the ghettos. So, this is why police "profile" blacks. It's completely unfair to the 99% of black people who are law-abiding and get into the records only as a victim, but that's the way it is. Jesse Jackson once said that if he hears footsteps behind him as he walks home, when he looks back and sees a white - he is relieved. On a first class radio talk show - the liberal host - Michael Jackson - gave a black leader this question. "Is it true that if a white woman runs into Emergency with her baby and is approached by a white and a black doctor, she will hand her baby to the white?" Said the black guest: "If a black woman brings in her baby, she'll hand it to the white doctor." This, from the suspicion that in order to get black doctors at any cost, things in medical school are made easier for them and those who graduate may not have suffered the rigor facing the white medical student. An unintended consequence of a warm-hearted policy. These problems are not confined medicine. New teachers - black and white - get the same treatment, going to ghetto schools for as short a time as possible before fleeing to the suburbs. Yes, the blacks flee, too. Of course they get danger pay - or rather special remuneration. I've been in black schools where armed security personnel roam the corridors. In California, Spanish speaking teachers got an extra $5,000 a year for teaching "English as second language" classes to Latinos who couldn't speak English. After years in which not a single kid graduated in English the program was dropped. (In spite of howls of protest from teachers who lost their $5,000 - and heavy opposition from the unions who have forgotten that teaches are supposed to be professionals.) We are lucky in California. We have something called the "Initiative", which allows us to bypass the politicians and put something directly into law. As you might expect, the kids learn English outside school, anyway. But, all this is a consequence of millions of mostly Mexicans, and mostly illegals, entering the South-West and flooding the labor market - often working for equally illegal poverty pay. (Usually, doing jobs that Americans don't want to do.) All this skews the global statistical picture of the US. Using purely anecdotal evidence, I must say that in almost 40 years in the US, I've never seen a shoot out. I have never owned a gun. Yet, I live in a lower middle class, somewhat brown, area. About 10 years ago, the son-in-law of our neighbors stole some things from their house. Fifteen years ago someone took 5 gallons of gas from my car - and came back a few days later for another 5 gallons. The car was parked out front - unlocked - yet he didn't take anything else. I figured he must have needed the gas, so that was that. That describes our crime-wave. Probably, different from what you've heard. Yet, my experience is no more representative of the US than the inner cities. This country is a large area saved from balkanization by its constitutional inability to erect trade barriers around each state. (Not to mention the wars that inevitably follow trade restrictions.) Your country is about twice the size of New Jersey. You cannot compare your problems with the problems the US encounters. Yet, Americans are pretty good people. Something I've found - as probably have you - is that people are pretty much the same everywhere in the world. However, the enormous advantage possessed by the States is an internal free market and until the end of the 19th century - free or very cheap land. The cheap land is gone while the external trade barriers are cutting into the advantage of the internal Free Trade area. We'll see how things go. Harry > > Service is excellent - the necessary rationing isn't particularly evident. > > I remember having a suspicious sore. I called the doctor on Wednesday and > > got an appointment next morning. He looked at it and immediately sent me to > > the specialists. They checked it and put me through 'pre-op', which means a > > trip through the hospital visiting everyone who has anything to do with > > your operation. The anesthesiologist tells you the choices and offers his > > recommendation, all kinds of nurses and doctors explain things. > > > > Monday morning - first thing - It was done and I left the hospital with a > > wrapped rose. > >You're lucky personally, but what about your fellows who are less lucky ? > > > We don't have gurneys in the corridors either, Chris. Though, I can't speak > > for the inner cities of New York, and Chicago, and suchlike. > >This statement symbolizes the recklessness of the "Free" Trade proponents. > >Chris ****************************** Harry Pollard Henry George School of LA Box 655 Tujunga CA 91042 Tel: (818) 352-4141 Fax: (818) 353-2242 *******************************
