Aw, c’mon. There are plenty of opportunities in drug dealing and prostitution in Europe as well.

Its that simple.

Everything’s simple to simple people.

And yes your’s want to burn cars for more welfare, ours just want the opportunity we provide.

Its that simple.

And thousands upon thousands of people from the third world are willing to risk death to get into the EU each year. Your point was?

Thats what my gradma was told for a hip operation, so she went private, and now is walking vrs in a bed.

Great system.

It great to see you have all the liberal news fed stories of the USA so handy.

The political system here is doing just fine.

The kids are doing just fine.

In fact the entire Nation is doing just fine.

We have 10 Million people who came here, are undocumented, and just for some odd reason.. want to stay.

go figure.. we must want to suck their life forces out, and they still want to stay.

Lets not go into the EU system of “Burning cars for better dental benifits”, or your great EU Military that did not even bother to show up for the little Bosnian war. If we go down your low EU GDP growth rates, then that’s just to much to bitch about.

Are you under the illusion that the USA is some sort of a libertarian anarchism? In fact, the US is a welfare state but just in a smaller scale than Finland. All civilized countries are welfare states, guaranteeing to some degree that the underprivileged people are not thrown into the trashes or that you can educate yourself even if your parents are poor and so on.

What bothers the other half of the Americans and most Europeans is that there are people in the US that believe the American welfare system could be abolished and then things would get better. Even Bush jr, by the way, don’t agree with this silly view – not anymore in any case. Just check out what he said in his latest state of the nation speech.

For some reason the extremist view you seem to represent also represents the picture many Europeans have of the USA, when, in fact, a large majority of the Americans would like to have, for example, the same kind of health-care system we have.

Your political system just can’t produce what the people want, and that’s another reason why people form more democratic societies find it hard to understand and accept your policies.

In other words, the majority of the Americans seem to be okay, value-wise, although a bit old fashioned. But the political system of yours produces unacceptable results in our view (“our” meaning a large majority, not the libertarian or communist kind of leeches trying to suck out the life force out of this hard-gained civilized way of life). Examples are for example: the right of the state to kill its own citizens or letting children live on the streets – or not granting decent health care for all.

Anyway,

Yes we do love the state of social Darwinism where the weak would perish and the strong would stomp on them.

Lets go look at Cuba!!! How about North Korea?? Or maybe the true state of social services in the EU?? All places where the state has imposed social Darwinism by the taking of taxes and telling the people exactly what they are getting back.

Then we swing across the sea to the USA, and its strong economy, job growth, GDP rates —– WAIT… STOP…. According to Aboy theory the USA can’t happen. Why, they stomp on the little guy over there and he has no job, he has no economy to feed him, what he needs is a Government to supply all that stuff.

Note to myself: This self-reliance bull has got to stop. Must change into a Welfare loving, State rules, stand in long lines are ok, the Government is right, type of guy.

Well, my dear, that’s just what they are. Do you think that people in Finland exploit these services? Perhaps some do, but it is not as widespread as you imagine.

We have paid for services for example for rehabilitation for the sick and injured, for the child families with low income, for the currently unemployed but who are looking for a job and in the meanwhile have to live on something, for the pensioners who have worked all their lives building this country and paying their taxes, for the bright university students who wouldn’t be able to study in a university if it wasn’t supported by the government, and so on and so forth.

The tax-payed services are there because without them there would be a state of social darwinism where the weak would perish and the strong would stomp on them. We would live in a society where the poor couldn’t get a decent healthcare and a decent education, no matter how bright they were. Their talents would be wasted. We would live in a society where socioeconomical status and not your personal abilities would dictate your options and position in life.

The safety nets that we’ve built (and which some are eager to tear down) are there for a reason: to give everyone a chance, no matter if they were born to a rich family or not. Finland is a small country and it knows that it can’t waste it’s brain-potential.

In the end, social benefits doled out by the state are a form of charity. The upside of charity, however, is that those accepting it (because they are in need) don’t see it as a right, or a normal state-of-things. Thus there’s motivation to rise above the acceptance of charity.

As to the efficiency of welfare state health care, or its possible advances in some statistical studies: all of those points become moot when one considers that not only does the US consumer pay for all of its own healthcare, but it also winds up paying for most of the world’s medical R&D, simply because the American consumer market creates an economically-friendly environment for such enterprises.

The rest of the world, of course, enjoys a freeride from the fruits of that innovation, thanks to the American worker-consumer.

I note your comment on “to be used”. That is what I am all against, and the point here.

You don’t have to be a leach, its your choice, and YES there is shame using Government resources. I do understand you paid the government for this service, but I expect you to vote with your conscience and go private.

My personnel choice, and yes I have had many opportunities to Leach (get money from being unemployed (many opportunities here), taking free donations from charities,) and yet I chose not to leach.

Its a pride thing with me. I just want to die, knowing I NEVER LEACHED on my fellow man, but was always the contributor to the less fortunate. Standing in a Government line for a free service, is leaching to me. Government lines should be a safety net only.

When the Government blurs this line, then how do I know if I am paying to much for help or not? They can just hide it in a cost increase, and use the money somewhere else. I.E. where is the accountability here. Accountability is what keeps a Government honest.

Now don’t confuse road/bridges (infrastructure) with a service. Service’s should generally always be in the public sector, and not mixed with the government pork we call road building. Road building is another long topic.

It’s always fun when these jokers who preach “rational self-interest” from one corner of the mouth declare the blessings of altruism from the other.

Look, it is not in my “rational self-interest” to support poor, ugly, smelly people in any way. I’d rather let them die and only have beautiful, smart and succesful people such as myself around. But I’m still happy to pay taxes to maintain a safety net. If this puzzles you, look up “prisoner’s dilemma”.