warning: X post.
and now that i have clearance, i will be copy/pasting my good friend soharavsalienta's "To Do if I Ever Run for President" list.
_____________
One. Provide top quality health care for everyone. No exceptions, and no discriminating against the poor because they cannot pay for hospitalisation. All life really is precious, people, and that doesn't just go for unborn babies. It is ridiculous for the government to refuse to accept this responsibility, which will not only save lives and help improve quality-of-life for millions, but save money all around. This also includes things like glasses, which is the one thing that the elderly population is in the greatest need of and which Medicare doesn't provide.
Two. Cut the stupid tax caps for the rich, which state that you do not pay taxes on anything you earn per annum that is more than $90.000. That's unfair discrimination. They can afford to pay taxes more than the poor and the nearly-poor can. This solves the problem of the lack of funds for Social Security, by the way.
Three. Cut the death penalty. If nobody else is allowed to kill people, the State shouldn't be allowed to kill people. Plain and simple. We do not have that much authority over another person's life. We just don't, and we need to stop pretending that we do. No amount of saved public money can compensate the lives of thousands that have been killed on Death Row. We don't have the right to do that.
Four. Permit fucking abortion. This seems like a contradiction, but it really isn't. Discourage abortion, but don't ban it, because you are not just screwing with the baby's life here, but also with the mother's. And do you know just how many juvenile homocides are committed by people who were unwanted and unloved? Orphanages aren't great things, either. Disabled kids in orphanages do not get the best care possible. Adoption is not always the best solution--there aren't enough people who want to adopt, you know--and, anyway, you are forcing a woman/girl to go through nine months of pain, stress, medical bills that the government isn't paying for, even though it is forcing her to go through the process of having the baby (assuming that abortion is banned). Also, you ruin a young mother's chances of college, a good career, etc. by banning abortion, and if she keeps that baby, as many, many people do, that baby is fucking expensive. This means no college, no graduate school, possibly no full-time job--the government could basically be forcing a woman into the worst parts of town, where her kid could get shot before the age of twelve or join a gang ang go out and murder a whole lot of people. Permit abortion. Do you know how many people have died because of juvenile homocide or by gangs? And do you know how many of those kids were unwanted? It usually isn't the loved, wanted children that join gangs and start killing people. If this is supposed to be a free country, let the mother choose what she honestly feels is best. Abortion, by the way, is not decided upon lightly. It is a very, very difficult decision. Do not pretend that it is something women do just so they can go to Bermuda without a stomach bump.
Five. Bush, you idiot, don't you dare ban contraceptives. See above reasons. You cannot stop people from having sex. Do not attempt to try. Birth control was a wonderful invention. Let it be.
Six. Let gay people marry. You are demoralising the idea of marriage by forcing people to live together without being married just because they are not heterosexual, because you are making it okay for them to live together without being married because they have no other choice. Marriage is about love, trust, and the lessening of financial complications. As far as I can see, there is nothing in there about heterosexuality, and it is crap to discriminate against gays.
Seven. Have no problem saying: "I'm sorry. I made a mistake." Even presidents are human, and I for one would respect a president more who admitted that he/she had screwed up. Stubbornness like that has contributed to the mess we're in with Iraq right now.
Eight. Come to that, pull out of fucking Iraq. They have asked us to leave repeatedly, and it is not our country. Period.
Nine. Never, ever, ever insult a political opponent. It is low, dirty, and it is not impossible to win a debate without hacking away at other people. Showcase yourself; don't cut them down. That isn't what a presidential election is about. It's about who can do the best for the country, not who has done the least amount of harm. Also, it takes intelligence to fight like this, and a president, yo, needs to be smart to run a country, especially one as large as this one. Prove intelligence by fighting fairly and intelligently.
Ten. Get a therapist. Better yet, get two. Two independent, governmental-approved therapists that will swear that you are mentally sound enough to run a country, and will help you through your term(s) in office. Therapists are required to have their own therapists, and they aren't in charge of the wellbeing of an entire country, just their own clients.
Eleven. Work as a teacher in an underprivileged area for at least a year. Work with poor and elderly people, so that your knowledge of this country doesn't just come from your country club.
Twelve. Improve schools to the extent that nobody anywhere in America would even think of writing the sentence on my avatar at the top of his/her Harry Potter fanfiction. Or any piece of writing, actually. Children in Europe and Asia do not die from lots of education. On the contrary: they are smart. And I will not start another rant on this. I will just say that I have ranted extensively to RL friends about this, and, if I were to become a teacher, which I am frequently tempted to do, my kids would work. Ridiculously hard. And they would come out of my class with a "sixth grade reading level" if I'm letting them go from third grade, among other things. Kids are smart; make no mistake about that. That intelligence does not need to die once they reach school.
________________
and, just because it's brilliant, her explanation of why we should be sweden:
_________________
Topic: Medical care
Big question number one. Is it a right or a privilege?
My question: OMGWTFBBQLYKEWHYISTHISAQUESTION?
The first four of the official definitions of "government" in the online American Heritage Dictionary are, respectively:
The act or process of governing, especially the control and administration of public policy in a political unit.
The office, function, or authority of a governing individual or body.
Exercise of authority in a political unit; rule.
The agency or apparatus through which a governing individual or body functions and exercises authority.
So...the goverment is an authoritative body of members that rules the public.
Okay.
Now, obvious question: why?
Why does the goverment rule the public,Virginia? To take care of the public, darling. The government locks up serial killers to protect everybody else, not necessarily to punish them, although that is certainly part of it. But there are many other ways to punish people. If you stretch somebody on the rack, or fine him into bankruptcy, that is a form of punishment. Instead, the government has chosen to lock criminally dangerous people up in prisons and/or mental institutions, thereby protecting more people from being offed.
That makes sense, no?
Okay.
We have set up this great government that not only imprisons criminals, but kills them so they don't have the chance of being released into the public again and so they don't waste the government's money on prison upkeep. Great. However, health is something that absolutely every single person, bar none, has to deal with, and every single person will reach a point in time when he or she will need an operation or medicine or glasses or hearing aids or whatever. Millions of people in America cannot afford the best health care possible--and, dammit, there's no point being entitled to "life, liberty, and happiness" if the "life" is cut short due to people being unable to pay for incredibly expensive heart surgery that their crap insurance won't cover, if the "liberty" has been screwed over because they've been driven into bankruptcy thanks to crazy, unforeseen medical bills, and if the "happiness" has just gone down the drain because they're bankrupt and ill. The government has been created to take care of the general public, which means that they need to help take care of the most pressing needs of people that have been screwed over by a fuckwit capitalist system, and what can possibly be more important to a person than his or her life, i.e. health? A shattered ribcage and torn lung will not fix itself if a person has no money to pay for his or her injuries.
Basically: the government was created to take care of people. Take care of them, then, dammit. All of them.
Next question: So, why doesn't the government take care of them?
Answer: Well, Virginia, it's complicated. Do we provide all or some healthcare? Basic care or catastrophic care? How convenient should the care be? What quality of care should people get? How should all this be financed? Should we allow for individual responsibility--like, if you're an idiot and don't wear a helmet on a motorcycle and crash, should the government pay for that, too? OH MY GOD, LIKE, THESE ARE THE CRAZIEST PROBLEMS TO DEAL WITH EVER!
Next question: Hasn't Sweden dealt with all of those problems successfully?
Answer: OMG, like, well, yes, but, like, NO. Because they pay, like 50% in taxes, which is OMGSOMUCH, and we can't do that, because, like, OMGTAXES!!!
Like, yo?
Sweden is very, very similar to the U.S. in terms of its societal structure. One, it is an urban culture, two, it has a planned economy but a democratic government, and, three, it has a high standard of living. Higher than ours, as a matter of fact.
This, by the way, is a list of all of the health coverage that Sweden offers its citizens:
Outpatient care
Hospital care
Drugs (pharmaceuticals, etc., obviously, not crack cocaine)
Counseling
Dental care
Rehab care
Travel expenses to care
Income payments while ill/disabled
Caretakers--i.e. family members who take care of their sick/elderly/disabled family get subsidized salary
Prenatal care dating from the moment the conception is known until one year after birth. Incidentally, Sweden has one of the lowest infant mortality rates in the world. OMGSURPRISE.
Sweden is divided up into counties. Each county has its own small hospital, each couple of counties (about four or so) have a major hospital that they share, and then there are frickin' huge hospitals that do elaborate surgeries and things. And--get this--Sweden also pays for your transportation to these hospitals. See number seven on the above list.
Complaints come, of course, from physicians. Their income is not as high as it is in the U.S. However, they are independent practitioners and are based in hospitals and clinics.
Another complaint is that the numbers of physicians are controlled by demand. They are. In America, you may become a neurosurgeon if your little heart desires; in Sweden, it isn't that easy. However. However, yo, the very expensive medical training is free in Sweden. It is completely paid for by the government, see, because they pay for all higher education. That means that the first thousand years of being a doctor are not spent in paying back student loans, etc., from medical school, as they are in the U.S. That helps with the lower-income problem. Make no mistake, by the way; they are highly paid, just not extravagantly paid.
True, Sweden has not ironed out snags like the difficulties surrounding rural care. But we haven't fixed that, either. And they are among the world's best healthcare systems, for obvious reasons.
Now, why hasn't the U.S. modeled its health care system after Sweden's?
Answer: OMGLYKEWTFTAXES1!!!!!ELEVENTYONE!1!11!11 Like, it's so expensive, and they pay, like 50% of their income in taxes!!!11!1!!1
Response: Oy? The consumer actually pays less in Sweden than the consumer pays in America. We are losing money by paying such low taxes and letting our medical aid system go to shit. Seriously.
The way I figure it, the definition of "civilisation" is "the ability to care about other people". People who do not do so are called uncivilised, i.e. cannibals. Merlindammit, America, wake up and care about the other people living in this country who need help. Everyone is going to need medical care at some point in time. Why not make it easier for yourself?
_____________
One. Provide top quality health care for everyone. No exceptions, and no discriminating against the poor because they cannot pay for hospitalisation. All life really is precious, people, and that doesn't just go for unborn babies. It is ridiculous for the government to refuse to accept this responsibility, which will not only save lives and help improve quality-of-life for millions, but save money all around. This also includes things like glasses, which is the one thing that the elderly population is in the greatest need of and which Medicare doesn't provide.
Two. Cut the stupid tax caps for the rich, which state that you do not pay taxes on anything you earn per annum that is more than $90.000. That's unfair discrimination. They can afford to pay taxes more than the poor and the nearly-poor can. This solves the problem of the lack of funds for Social Security, by the way.
Three. Cut the death penalty. If nobody else is allowed to kill people, the State shouldn't be allowed to kill people. Plain and simple. We do not have that much authority over another person's life. We just don't, and we need to stop pretending that we do. No amount of saved public money can compensate the lives of thousands that have been killed on Death Row. We don't have the right to do that.
Four. Permit fucking abortion. This seems like a contradiction, but it really isn't. Discourage abortion, but don't ban it, because you are not just screwing with the baby's life here, but also with the mother's. And do you know just how many juvenile homocides are committed by people who were unwanted and unloved? Orphanages aren't great things, either. Disabled kids in orphanages do not get the best care possible. Adoption is not always the best solution--there aren't enough people who want to adopt, you know--and, anyway, you are forcing a woman/girl to go through nine months of pain, stress, medical bills that the government isn't paying for, even though it is forcing her to go through the process of having the baby (assuming that abortion is banned). Also, you ruin a young mother's chances of college, a good career, etc. by banning abortion, and if she keeps that baby, as many, many people do, that baby is fucking expensive. This means no college, no graduate school, possibly no full-time job--the government could basically be forcing a woman into the worst parts of town, where her kid could get shot before the age of twelve or join a gang ang go out and murder a whole lot of people. Permit abortion. Do you know how many people have died because of juvenile homocide or by gangs? And do you know how many of those kids were unwanted? It usually isn't the loved, wanted children that join gangs and start killing people. If this is supposed to be a free country, let the mother choose what she honestly feels is best. Abortion, by the way, is not decided upon lightly. It is a very, very difficult decision. Do not pretend that it is something women do just so they can go to Bermuda without a stomach bump.
Five. Bush, you idiot, don't you dare ban contraceptives. See above reasons. You cannot stop people from having sex. Do not attempt to try. Birth control was a wonderful invention. Let it be.
Six. Let gay people marry. You are demoralising the idea of marriage by forcing people to live together without being married just because they are not heterosexual, because you are making it okay for them to live together without being married because they have no other choice. Marriage is about love, trust, and the lessening of financial complications. As far as I can see, there is nothing in there about heterosexuality, and it is crap to discriminate against gays.
Seven. Have no problem saying: "I'm sorry. I made a mistake." Even presidents are human, and I for one would respect a president more who admitted that he/she had screwed up. Stubbornness like that has contributed to the mess we're in with Iraq right now.
Eight. Come to that, pull out of fucking Iraq. They have asked us to leave repeatedly, and it is not our country. Period.
Nine. Never, ever, ever insult a political opponent. It is low, dirty, and it is not impossible to win a debate without hacking away at other people. Showcase yourself; don't cut them down. That isn't what a presidential election is about. It's about who can do the best for the country, not who has done the least amount of harm. Also, it takes intelligence to fight like this, and a president, yo, needs to be smart to run a country, especially one as large as this one. Prove intelligence by fighting fairly and intelligently.
Ten. Get a therapist. Better yet, get two. Two independent, governmental-approved therapists that will swear that you are mentally sound enough to run a country, and will help you through your term(s) in office. Therapists are required to have their own therapists, and they aren't in charge of the wellbeing of an entire country, just their own clients.
Eleven. Work as a teacher in an underprivileged area for at least a year. Work with poor and elderly people, so that your knowledge of this country doesn't just come from your country club.
Twelve. Improve schools to the extent that nobody anywhere in America would even think of writing the sentence on my avatar at the top of his/her Harry Potter fanfiction. Or any piece of writing, actually. Children in Europe and Asia do not die from lots of education. On the contrary: they are smart. And I will not start another rant on this. I will just say that I have ranted extensively to RL friends about this, and, if I were to become a teacher, which I am frequently tempted to do, my kids would work. Ridiculously hard. And they would come out of my class with a "sixth grade reading level" if I'm letting them go from third grade, among other things. Kids are smart; make no mistake about that. That intelligence does not need to die once they reach school.
________________
and, just because it's brilliant, her explanation of why we should be sweden:
_________________
Topic: Medical care
Big question number one. Is it a right or a privilege?
My question: OMGWTFBBQLYKEWHYISTHISAQUESTION?
The first four of the official definitions of "government" in the online American Heritage Dictionary are, respectively:
The act or process of governing, especially the control and administration of public policy in a political unit.
The office, function, or authority of a governing individual or body.
Exercise of authority in a political unit; rule.
The agency or apparatus through which a governing individual or body functions and exercises authority.
So...the goverment is an authoritative body of members that rules the public.
Okay.
Now, obvious question: why?
Why does the goverment rule the public,Virginia? To take care of the public, darling. The government locks up serial killers to protect everybody else, not necessarily to punish them, although that is certainly part of it. But there are many other ways to punish people. If you stretch somebody on the rack, or fine him into bankruptcy, that is a form of punishment. Instead, the government has chosen to lock criminally dangerous people up in prisons and/or mental institutions, thereby protecting more people from being offed.
That makes sense, no?
Okay.
We have set up this great government that not only imprisons criminals, but kills them so they don't have the chance of being released into the public again and so they don't waste the government's money on prison upkeep. Great. However, health is something that absolutely every single person, bar none, has to deal with, and every single person will reach a point in time when he or she will need an operation or medicine or glasses or hearing aids or whatever. Millions of people in America cannot afford the best health care possible--and, dammit, there's no point being entitled to "life, liberty, and happiness" if the "life" is cut short due to people being unable to pay for incredibly expensive heart surgery that their crap insurance won't cover, if the "liberty" has been screwed over because they've been driven into bankruptcy thanks to crazy, unforeseen medical bills, and if the "happiness" has just gone down the drain because they're bankrupt and ill. The government has been created to take care of the general public, which means that they need to help take care of the most pressing needs of people that have been screwed over by a fuckwit capitalist system, and what can possibly be more important to a person than his or her life, i.e. health? A shattered ribcage and torn lung will not fix itself if a person has no money to pay for his or her injuries.
Basically: the government was created to take care of people. Take care of them, then, dammit. All of them.
Next question: So, why doesn't the government take care of them?
Answer: Well, Virginia, it's complicated. Do we provide all or some healthcare? Basic care or catastrophic care? How convenient should the care be? What quality of care should people get? How should all this be financed? Should we allow for individual responsibility--like, if you're an idiot and don't wear a helmet on a motorcycle and crash, should the government pay for that, too? OH MY GOD, LIKE, THESE ARE THE CRAZIEST PROBLEMS TO DEAL WITH EVER!
Next question: Hasn't Sweden dealt with all of those problems successfully?
Answer: OMG, like, well, yes, but, like, NO. Because they pay, like 50% in taxes, which is OMGSOMUCH, and we can't do that, because, like, OMGTAXES!!!
Like, yo?
Sweden is very, very similar to the U.S. in terms of its societal structure. One, it is an urban culture, two, it has a planned economy but a democratic government, and, three, it has a high standard of living. Higher than ours, as a matter of fact.
This, by the way, is a list of all of the health coverage that Sweden offers its citizens:
Outpatient care
Hospital care
Drugs (pharmaceuticals, etc., obviously, not crack cocaine)
Counseling
Dental care
Rehab care
Travel expenses to care
Income payments while ill/disabled
Caretakers--i.e. family members who take care of their sick/elderly/disabled family get subsidized salary
Prenatal care dating from the moment the conception is known until one year after birth. Incidentally, Sweden has one of the lowest infant mortality rates in the world. OMGSURPRISE.
Sweden is divided up into counties. Each county has its own small hospital, each couple of counties (about four or so) have a major hospital that they share, and then there are frickin' huge hospitals that do elaborate surgeries and things. And--get this--Sweden also pays for your transportation to these hospitals. See number seven on the above list.
Complaints come, of course, from physicians. Their income is not as high as it is in the U.S. However, they are independent practitioners and are based in hospitals and clinics.
Another complaint is that the numbers of physicians are controlled by demand. They are. In America, you may become a neurosurgeon if your little heart desires; in Sweden, it isn't that easy. However. However, yo, the very expensive medical training is free in Sweden. It is completely paid for by the government, see, because they pay for all higher education. That means that the first thousand years of being a doctor are not spent in paying back student loans, etc., from medical school, as they are in the U.S. That helps with the lower-income problem. Make no mistake, by the way; they are highly paid, just not extravagantly paid.
True, Sweden has not ironed out snags like the difficulties surrounding rural care. But we haven't fixed that, either. And they are among the world's best healthcare systems, for obvious reasons.
Now, why hasn't the U.S. modeled its health care system after Sweden's?
Answer: OMGLYKEWTFTAXES1!!!!!ELEVENTYONE!1!11!11 Like, it's so expensive, and they pay, like 50% of their income in taxes!!!11!1!!1
Response: Oy? The consumer actually pays less in Sweden than the consumer pays in America. We are losing money by paying such low taxes and letting our medical aid system go to shit. Seriously.
The way I figure it, the definition of "civilisation" is "the ability to care about other people". People who do not do so are called uncivilised, i.e. cannibals. Merlindammit, America, wake up and care about the other people living in this country who need help. Everyone is going to need medical care at some point in time. Why not make it easier for yourself?