On Fri, 22 Feb 2008 12:45:29 +0000, Mike.......
wrote:
>Following up to john_kulp@... (John Kulp) wrote:
>
>> Some don't but certainly not all.
>
>you realise that doesn't sound too reassuring to Europeans?
Sure. My wife's Swedish and has seen both. Europeans have long since
made conscious decisions to accept low growth and high unemployment,
for instance, in return for supposed security. Americans haven't,
which is the basic difference in the healthcare systems that evolved
in both places. Problem is, this worked pretty well early on when
populations were young and healthy and could be paid for. Now, when
they are aging and need more and more healthcare, it can't, so
Europeans are still getting low growth and high unemployment
(admittedly with some exceptions) with resource constrained
healthcare. Americans are getting (usually) higher growth, lower
unemployment, lower taxes and no universal coverage. You can argue
endlessly about which is preferable, but these are the main
differences. |