we spend all our money
on wars instead of ourselves. Ron Paul would have corrected all that but "we, the people" don't seem to want to
live longer and in peace so we vote for someone like McCain - now, that's crazy.
We aren't
doing very well:
When it comes to
infant mortality, we're even
worse than Cuba!
And our life spans suck!
The World Health Organization's ranking of the world's health systems.
Rank Country
1
France
2 Italy
3 San Marino
4 Andorra
5 Malta
6 Singapore
7
Spain
8 Oman
9 Austria
10 Japan
11 Norway
12 Portugal
13
Monaco
14 Greece
15 Iceland
16 Luxembourg
17 Netherlands
18 United
Kingdom
19 Ireland
20 Switzerland
21 Belgium
22 Colombia
23 Sweden
24
Cyprus
25 Germany
26 Saudi Arabia
27 United Arab Emirates
28 Israel
29
Morocco
30 Canada
31 Finland
32 Australia
33 Chile
34 Denmark
35
Dominica
36 Costa Rica
37 United States of America
38
Slovenia
39 Cuba
Freedom begins when you tell Mrs. Grundy to go fly a kite.
--Lazarus Long
we spend all our money
on wars instead of ourselves. Ron Paul would have corrected all that but "we, the people" don't seem to want to
live longer and in peace so we vote for someone like McCain - now, that's crazy.
There is a cure for electile dysfuntion!!!!
Nice numbers but they would be
better with information on why. One obvious issue is the way we take care of our bodies and the abuse they get. Are
there other reasons
To compel a man to subsidize with his taxes the propagation of ideas which he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical.
Thomas Jefferson
I as looking some
other information up and came across these numbers so I really don't have any reasons. However, my guess is the
poor are shifting the numbers. When you have to decide between seeing a doctor or putting food on the table for your
family...
At that point prenatal care becomes a luxury, hence the infant mortality rate. The old on fixed incomes
who have to decide if they are going to eat or fill that prescription aren't going to get the medicine to manage
the illness that eventually kills them before they would have died otherwise. And so forth...just a feeling
Then
again the crap the US allows in our food chain that most other countries wont allow...
Freedom begins when you tell Mrs. Grundy to go fly a kite.
--Lazarus Long
I expect there will be other
reasons as well. Obesity comes to mind as do drug use and such. I recently saw an article saying that obesity
actually makes it cheaper to treat people because they die so much younger than healthy people.
To compel a man to subsidize with his taxes the propagation of ideas which he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical.
Thomas Jefferson
I saw that one too. I think the obesity epidemic comes from the crap food
we now have in this country. Over processed chemical filled junk food. Not to mention the restaurants that load the
plates with mountains of food. I read somewhere that we are consuming 15% more calories then we did 20 years ago
because of the junk food. I also saw an article where someone from USDA stated that produce is less nutritious today
than 50 years ago because of overused land and the over use of artificial fertilizers.
Freedom begins when you tell Mrs. Grundy to go fly a kite.
--Lazarus Long
that when you go out
to eat they give you too much food. I suspect too if restaurants cut back a bit the customers would complain
loudly. Have you ever been to one of those rather large Chinese Food buffets? Take a look around and you'll see
some rather stout folks dining.
The best advice I have is to learn how to cook. And, cook from scratch if
you can afford the time. You'll be eating much healthier. I found that after NAFTA the quality of produce went
downhill fast. Tomatoes are dismal. Shipping Florida oranges out of state and importing Mexican, what kind of
fools idea was that? Sue and I eat better than most people and are usually disappointed when going out to eat,
it's just not on a par with what we cook at home. And, that's much cheaper too. You can eat well if you work at
it.
Some other factors, we've lost many men during Vietnam and now, less so, in Iraq/Afghanistan. I'm
not sure but isn't it something like half of all young Black males are in prison, the diets in prisons are not for
the health conscious and Black men live far lesser than White men. I can't complain much about the health care
system. If you have insurance, you are usually taken good care of but if you don't - you will get treated
accordingly. My daughter, who has high quality health care insurance, was admitted to a hospital for gall-bladder
surgery. She was getting a tad annoyed with the way she was being treated and when she voiced her opinion they told
her "well, too bad you don't have health insurance". After my daughter pointed out their mistake, things got much
better for her.
On a rant here, we are told that our premiums are high because so many people do not have
health care insurance and that rankles plenty of people but then they think, well - ok, I'm doing my part to help
the lesser off and they live with it. In Massachusets, they have mandated health insurance and have now covered
about 85% of those who previously had none. Have premiums gone down for those who've always had health insurance?
lol
There is a cure for electile dysfuntion!!!!
Seems we're
getting poorer too. While this is 10 years old, the same thing
has been going on since 1973, and continues today.
Freedom begins when you tell Mrs. Grundy to go fly a kite.
--Lazarus Long
In part, I think you are right
about the crap they call food. Go to the grocery store and try reading the labels on all these boxed, prepackaged
foods they offer. But there is another part to the story as well. Three things I've seen recently bring the point
home. We were in a buffet one night and I overheard a man telling his 5-6 year old son he couldn't have any fruit
until he got something good for him, like the macaroni and cheese! Another time, standing in line at the grocery
store staring at a basket full of boxed foods, cookies and softdrinks without a single fresh fruit or vegetable. It
belong to an obese woman in her thirties who was complaining to her friend about not being able to lose weight. The
last is these people who circle the parking lot 12 times to find a parking place thirty feet closer to the store so
they don't have to walk so far.
The point is we choose to eat the way we do, we don't get any exercize and we
often don't even know that we are killing ourselves!
Somebody made a point to me the other day about health
insurance. It isn't the poor people that have poor health coverage, they do pretty well because of government
sponsored healthcare. It's the lower middle class who cannot afford health insurance but make too much money to
qualify for government health care. Hypothetically, they would be helped by government mandated universal health
care. The problem is demonstrated in every country that provides it. The taxes go up and the quality goes down.
Typically a government doctor in most of those countries sees 60% of the patients that a private doctor in this
country sees. And they are paid far less which means the best and the brightest go into other professions. The end
result is fewer doctors of lower quality doing less work. And does that mean the cost of healtcare in those
countries got better? No! And does it mean the patients get better care? Far worse, if you look at the facts. How
many people in this country wait months to get in to see a doctor for a problem? Ask anybody in any of the countries
with universal healthcare how long they have to wait.
Lastly, as screwed up as our government is, as badly run
as every agency in the government is managed, what makes anybody think that this government can provide healthcare
any better or more effectively than they do every thing else? Based on experience, I think every person in this
country would lose if we had government sponsored healthcare.
To compel a man to subsidize with his taxes the propagation of ideas which he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical.
Thomas Jefferson
One of my gripes is food prices.
Ever notice that the "less than healthy food" is usually the cheapest? We give massive farm subsidies to grow wheat,
make high-fructose corn syrup, etc, but nest to zip for fresh veggies, fruits etc. When you live near the bottom of
the financial barrel it's tough. I'm in a similar situation to one mentioned already. Too "poor" to buy really
good food (I have to support a handicapped friend besides myself) and too "rich" to get food stamps. 60 cent loaf of
white bread, or a $3 loaf of whole wheat. Guess what...
And notice what happens when a food gets labeled as
being "healthy?" Remember when chicken was the "cheap" alternative meat? Then it became "healthy?" Prices went
skyrocketing...
One last thought: one reason people here in the US are overweight?
Because we can.
In
some parts of the world where people are thinner, it's not because they consiously eat better, it's because they
have less food available overall. When those "thin" people come here, on goes the weight, and more. When thin, short
Japanese are introduced to American foods, they get bigger *and taller*.
Just some thoughts.
The opposite of love isn't hate.
It's apathy.
is about 4-5 years down
the road. I want to live in Florida where I'll finally be able to grow all my own fruits, vegetables, and weed and
be close enough to either the Gulf or the Atlantic coast to catch most of my protein. The only things I'll want to
buy at the store would be beer, wine, cheese, breads, and the occasional meat. We live in a heavily forested area
and not much grows here well. There's too much shade and the soil is very acidic from pine needles. Also, the
critters around here are crafty and will find a way to snatch whatever does grow, very frustrating. I'd also like
to have at least some solar power for hot water and will be driving the most fuel efficient car I can afford. With
a little luck,a grocery store will be within walking distance.
I can really appreciate what the previous
poster mentioned about the worst foods for people costing the least. Why is whole wheat pasta double the price of
regular pasta? Companies that make decaffeinated charge more for it than regular coffee and they will tell you that
it's expensive to extract the caffeine, what they don't tell you is that they make a substantial profit from
selling the caffeine to make products such as "nodoze" and the like. Ever look at the large can of tuna and think,
ah - that's got to be the better buy, well - it isn't, 3 small cans making the same weight as the large can will
be cheaper. Those WalMart super stores, you would think they would be cheaper than your local grocer, often, it's
the other way around.
There is a cure for electile dysfuntion!!!!
And yet another statistic. Last
night on 60 Minutes there was a report on the happiest nations. We are #23, Denmark is the happiest nation. We are
right behind Cuba.
Freedom begins when you tell Mrs. Grundy to go fly a kite.
--Lazarus Long
Based on what? I'm not arguing
the point but it is a pretty broad statement. What were the criteria used?
Personally, I'd be a lot happier
with a lot less government interference in a multitude of things. Others would be happier with just the opposite.
I'm not sure that such a wide ranging statement can really be applicable.
To compel a man to subsidize with his taxes the propagation of ideas which he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical.
Thomas Jefferson
Well, they wouldn't say on what
basis they measured "happy", but with Jamaica at the number one spot, we are left to guess.
To enjoy good health, to bring true happiness to one's family, to bring peace to all, one must first discipline and control one's own mind. If a man can control his mind he can find the way to Enlightenment, and all wisdom and virtue will naturally come to him.
- Buddha
Yoga in Eugene
Fair Trade crafts from Peru
yeah, guess they forgot to
poll me!!!
There is a cure for electile dysfuntion!!!!
Me too!
Yea the USA is such a horrible place to live. I guess that's why many US citizens are
risking their lives to get to Cuba. And the Cubans are so content with their Marxist utopia they just love to stay
put. Why I bet if Castro did another Marilita boat evacuation opportunity the people would not leave, because they
are so wonderfully happy
Last edited by belgareth; 02-18-2008 at 02:31 PM.
"happiness" can be such a realative
term.
You could be unhappy because you could only afford a 58" plasma TV instead of the 60"...
You could be
unhappy because you had to wait in line for 10 minutes at Starbucks to get your $5 cup of coffee this morning...
or
You could be happy that there wasn't a knock on your door at 4:00am by the Secret Police...
Statistics, like "truth," can be manipulated in oh so many ways.
The opposite of love isn't hate.
It's apathy.
"This well-known saying is part
of a phrase attributed to Benjamin Disraeli and popularized in the U.S. by Mark Twain: There are three kinds of
lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics. The semi-ironic statement refers to the persuasive power of numbers, and
succinctly describes how even accurate statistics can be used to bolster inaccurate arguments."
-Wiki
I think
that rating health care is as nebulous as measuring "happiness". Whenever I see these "who's best" lists I always
look at where they came from and what agenda is being advanced by such meaningless studies.
tongue has a good
point, if the US is so bad, why does everyone want to be here? In addition, how many countries have received so
many nationalities and accepted them as their own?
With all the current attention to "diversity", America
invented it the day it became a nation over 200 years ago.
The "Happy" Cubans get another
Castro to lead them to the promised land. And not even elected. Can't wait to find happiness in Cuba.
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