Congress thinks we aren't paying enough for gasoline. That's the only conclusion to draw from a bill, approved by the House on Tuesday, that would allow our government to sue OPEC members. The bill, which also has strong support in the Senate, would amend antitrust laws to make it illegal for foreign governments to curb oil and natural gas production or control energy prices. That probably wasn't the only reason that crude oil prices traded as high as $67.10 a barrel this week, but it didn't help. Congress wasn't finished, though. The House also passed bills to make gasoline price gouging a federal crime, and some lawmakers even pondered breaking up big oil companies. Why is it so hard for the governing body of world's leading example of free enterprise to grasp how markets work? In one word: Democrats and their Lawyers. Read for your selves: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/headline/biz/4834680.html
You are right! Suddenly all intelligence vaporizes in the face of the Marxist Socialism of America's liberal Demoncraps. There is no way to rationalize DEMONCRAP stupidity. Capitalism FREES people to attempt to better their lives without the constant restraints of an overwhelming regulatory hell that is typical of all socialist societies. The most elementary point to be made: Over the last 10 years Canada's SOCIALIST government run pharmaceutical research labs produced ZERO new medications to benefit mankind. America's CAPITALIST pharmaceutical companies USING THEIR OWN MONEY FOR ALL THEIR RESEARCH produced over 300 new important medications. It's no wonder that Canada's and England's SOCIALIST DEMONCRAP STYLE healthcare systems are collapsing on themselves: when a country's citizens aren't free quality suffers. Have you payed high enough prices for your gasoline yet? Just start suing OPEC and see where that will get you. Happy holidays, go out and wave a flag!
I'd like to add a couple of thoughts to this and I'll try and do it without making up what I think are clever little names for things. First - healthcare; I am a pensioner living on a relatively small fixed income. Because I am living in an apparently evil socialist country (though I never thought of it in quite that way) I don't have to worry about the cost of health care in my declining years. It's really kind of a comforting feeling.Free markets are great for consumer things and such where if you don't like the price you can just do without. I think affordable health care is another matter. Second - gasoline prices; I guess this is really the same argument. Our society and lifestyles have evolved in such away that for many of us doing without gasoline is not a viable option. How exactly is it a free market when oil companies know that no matter what they charge some people will just have to buy their product. Perhaps you are fortunate and are in a position where these issues are not a problem for you. If so it is easy to sit back and preach. I'm also curious about you source for a couple of things.Could you reveal some of the 300 important medications developed,perhaps,with donations from the pharmaceutical company CEO's bonuses.Also in what way is Canada's healthcare system collapsing on itself? Just curious. Bill
Did I understand you right? You can afford and buy gasoline, but not your medicine! This is what I'm trying to point out: "Envy plus rhetoric equals 'social injustice'.".......Thomas Sowell I'm sorry for you and feel your pain, but does that mean that I have to pay for it? Why?
I can buy gasomine (sic) and medicine but I don't have to worry about having to mortgage my house if I have a serious illness. Your reply suggests that you have compassion but no social conscience. I'm sorry, somehow I missed your answer to my questions. Bill
I did what you apparently forgot how to do and Googled for those questions. Here is part of the answer, and if you want any more, you can do your own research. High Costs, Low Quality A July 2004 study by the Vancouver-based Fraser Institute, Paying, More, Getting Less, concluded that after years of government control, the Canadian medical system is badly injured and bleeding citizens' hard-earned tax dollars. The institute compared health care systems in the industrialized countries in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and found Canada currently spends the most, yet ranks among the lowest on such indicators as access to physicians, quality of medical equipment, and key health outcomes. One of the major reasons for this discrepancy is that, unlike the countries in the study that outperformed Canada--Sweden, Japan, Australia, and France, for example--Canada outlaws most private health care. If the Canadian government says it provides a particular medical service, it is illegal for a Canadian citizen to pay for and obtain that service privately. At the same time, the Canadian government bureaucracy rations medical services. According to another Fraser Institute survey, Waiting Your Turn: Hospital Waiting Lists in Canada (13th edition, October 2003), a Canadian health care patient, on average, must wait 17.7 weeks for hospital treatment. Those who live in Saskatchewan waited an average of 30 weeks, those in Ontario a relatively expeditious 14 weeks. Dying in Queues In 1999, Dr. Richard F. Davies, a cardiologist at the University of Ottawa Heart Institute and professor of medicine at the University of Ottawa, described in remarks for the Canadian Institute for Health Information how delays affected Ontario heart patients scheduled for coronary artery bypass graft surgery. In a single year, for this one operation, the doctor said, "71 Ontario patients died before surgery, 121 were removed from the list permanently because they had become medically unfit for surgery," and 44 left the province to have the surgery, many having gone to the United States for the operation. (According to the Canadian Institute for Health Information, 33 Canadian hospitals performed approximately 22,500 bypass surgeries in 1998-99.) In other words, 192 people either died or became too sick to have surgery before they could work their way to the front of the line. IF you require more, read it here: http://www.heartland.org/Article.cfm?artId=15524
If you want to see a sick joke of a health system,come over here to New Zealand.Despite what the New Zealand Government claims,New Zealand IS NOT a wealthy country at all.New Zealanders are very heavily taxed,& can pay up to nearly 40% of their income in taxes.Far fewer New Zealanders are able to afford to buy their own house,as house prices have gone through the roof.Petrol (gasoline) is around the NZ$1.60 per litre mark these days. A lot of doctors & nurses from New Zealand have left for jobs overseas,as the pay is quite low & work conditions are terrible.A doctor from New Zealand can earn 4 times the pay over in Canada or the U.K. than what they would be getting in New Zealand. I wouldn't be too surprised if the price of oil kept on going up,considering that Hugo Chavez has effectively taken over the Venezuelan oil industry & kicked the multinational oil companies out of Venezuela.A similar thing is happening in Bolivia.I wouldn't be too surprised if the same thing occurred in Peru.These nutcase regimes in South America are doing a lot of harm in today's world. Aidan.
Why is everything a war between two parties with you guys? Can't some people get together and do some good for mankind in general??? ...Yeah, right... And I blame democrats and republicans equally for that.
Response: It would appear that when you only have a hammer in your tool box, all problems look like nails!:goofer:
I apologize. I allowed myself to be drawn into a confrontational exchange and that's really not like me.It won't happen again. Bill
Bill, an apology is not required or needed when you ask questions in need of answers. I will always be happy to privide either the answers ( as I know them) or give you references where you can go and find the information yourself. Being a Canadian, I can see where you would have a concern about the heslth issue and how it's provided. That is the big thing here, as most of us don't want something that even comes close to what they have palmed off on you folks. What is already in place is much better than anything they have come up with so far. So keep posting and asking questions and providing answers as needed. That is what make this a good place to try out ideas and see what people are thinking. It's good to have you involved.:hug:
I can buy gas,I can buy medicine when needed, I can pay my mortgage,I can pay for food. But I'll be goddamned , I cannot afford my heroin fixes. Oh GW help a fellow junkie. I know he's seen the needle and the damage done.
