1406
Want some so bad but not willing to trade organs for it (startrek.website)
submitted 2 years ago by to c/memes@lemmy.ml
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[–] 145 points 2 years ago (3 children)

It's kinda like comparing universal healthcare to individual payer for-profit insurance. One rewards everyone as a universal system with consistency (at least in theory) and the other rewards only rich people.

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  • [–] 64 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    Right. One's a business and one's a service the government provides.

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  • [–] 33 points 2 years ago* (1 child)

    The government provides

    Except USPS is completely self funded, and does NOT use any of your tax dollars.

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  • [–] 23 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    That's an excellent point, but it is still a government service.

    Being administered by the government, self sufficient, and mandated to not make excess revenue just makes it a remarkably easy to justify service.

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  • [–] 4 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    There’s nothing inherently stopping us from crowdfunding services with a similar “business model” separate from the government. Can’t wait for that light bulb to flicker on for most of us.

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  • [–] 7 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    I actually live in a city where the public works is a publicly owned utility, and it's pretty great. Rates are reasonable, excess revenue goes to infrastructure improvements rather than shareholders, and leadership is paid reasonably ($300k+benefits for CEO equivalent), and key decisions are voted on by the city council.

    I'm curious why you want something separate from the government. To me, a crowd funded publicly controlled service is a government service in all but name and accountability.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago (1 child)

    The city/state level is much more likely to achieve things like this and that’s great but it’s not always the case. Regulatory capture and complex relationships with industry players make the government an imperfect vehicle for doing what’s best for communities. Sometimes a downright impediment to it.

    My point is that there’s nothing inherently stopping us from doing it for ourselves in any situation where the state is not optimally stewarding the public trust on our behalf, and the sooner we figure that out the sooner we start solving up-til-now rather intractable problems.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago (1 child)

    I suppose my point was more that publicly owned funded and managed is functionally what government is.
    Any issues with government management of a utility is just as applicable to a crowd funded publicly managed one.

    There's nothing stopping us from altering the state to optimally steward the public trust. It's probably easier because the state already exists, and has mechanics for dealing with the types of civil issues that arise from community organization on complex projects.

    The government isn't something that's apart from us, it's made of us.

    What, to you, is the actual difference between a community working together and organizing their resources for the common benefit, and a government?

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  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago

    Sorry for the delayed reply. Been AFK.

    What, to you, is the actual difference between a community working together and organizing their resources for the common benefit, and a government?

    The ability to collaborate solely with values-aligned community rather than being forced to reach consensus across all people in a geographic region regardless of how antagonistic or philosophically misaligned we are.

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  • [–] 28 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    That's why they oppose universal healthcare here in the US -- they wan't access to special treatment.

    What they don't realize is they can still have Mommy's Super Special Boy(tm) access, since even in a system of universal healthcare, there's still a demand for private practice.

    So really, it just boils down to them hating poor people and other marginalized groups

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  • [–] 9 points 2 years ago

    Also universal healthcare can afford specialized equipment because the amount of people they would service is higher than the profit driven hospital

    Rather than the current system of specialized equipment still having to make profit so treatment costs increase

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  • [–] 3 points 2 years ago

    Except you would be very upset if your Uber eats took 3-5 days to arrive, as a postal system does. The cost is because it's an entirely different product, an on-demand courier system. It's closer to comparing universal healthcare with having a doctor on retainer (if such a thing exists).

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