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View Full Version : Greece: Welfare porcshes....



dwarthog
11/1/2011, 07:16 PM
Seems there are more of these expensive cars in Greece than folks who have declared enough salary to actually own one....

Go socialism!

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/finance/ianmcowie/100012894/fast-cars-and-loose-fiscal-morals-there-are-more-porsches-in-greece-than-taxpayers-declaring-50000-euro-incomes/

cleller
11/1/2011, 07:39 PM
Reminds me of a conversation I had with a kid with dual Canadian/American citizenship about 5 years ago. (on an airplane) He went on and on about how the US healthcare was so behind England and Canada. Of course, he was just about to start a new job in NYC.

Yeah, the government can give you everything you need. When that goes toes up, you can suck it away from the people that worked while you sat on you butt eating and drinking whatever you could get your hands on.

jumperstop
11/1/2011, 07:42 PM
Porches are the pinical of wealth? Who knew...

badger
11/2/2011, 10:54 AM
He went on and on about how the US healthcare was so behind England and Canada. Of course, he was just about to start a new job in NYC.

Free healthcare is good till you have an emergency. A relative used the Cherokee services and there was like a three-month backlog for just checkups last time she used it. I've heard similar horror stories about emergency or high profile care overseas... they don't have the resources that hospitals and clinics here do.

As for Greek porches, they really need to just do the McMansion thing like Americans who want to look and feel wealthy do. Who needs a backyard or a front porch when you can have EVERYTHING INDOORS!!!!!!!!!!!!

;)

soonercruiser
11/2/2011, 11:24 AM
Gee! I've got two!

Front porche and back porche!
Both repainted recently.
:triumphant:

cleller
11/2/2011, 02:11 PM
Ah, you come-a wit me for a ride in de Porshe! We will have much wine and-a oily bread, and watch-a de boats come in. Then we do de same-a thing de next day. We no have-to pick up- de check no more, its-a direct deposit.

AlboSooner
11/2/2011, 11:52 PM
I am not even going to elaborate on humane healthcare systems in Europe, but it is the pinnacle of deceit when I hear that you don't have to wait to be seen by a doctor in the US, or that US healthcare services are so superior to other countries. The data just shows a different picture.

The view that healthcare is a privilege and must be governed by insurance companies who often play God, is incompatible with the Christian faith, which strangely is the religion of choice for people who favor the cut-throat healthcare system we have.
Last time I checked the US was living large, fighting wars on communist China's credit line; why so self-righteous?

Glass houses, and stones....



Gee! I've got two!

Front porche and back porche!
Both repainted recently.


I'd rather take out a loan for a Porsche, than a PT Cruiser. You live only once on this earth, and life should not be spent paying off cars like PT cruisers, and other cars of its unimpressive ilk.

Serge Ibaka
11/3/2011, 12:06 AM
Free healthcare is good till you have an emergency. A relative used the Cherokee services and there was like a three-month backlog for just checkups last time she used it. I've heard similar horror stories about emergency or high profile care overseas... they don't have the resources that hospitals and clinics here do.

That's easy when you charge artificially inflated prices (to a place where great numbers of the general public do not have access to your services). Some people get good service, and a few people get rich, rich, rich.

I think it's ridiculous that any Americans are denied access to life saving (or pain-easing) technologies for any reason; it is baffling to me that we're a people who let our neighbors suffer (even if they "deserve it" for whatever reason(s) that they are not insured). Americans ought to be better than that.

And to the people trumpeting the there are really long lines at Canadian/European clinics!!!1 argument: that's a pu**y argument. I thought America was supposed to be better (we just have to make a free-system that works more efficiently). But right now, we're the soulless brutes.

BU BEAR
11/3/2011, 09:27 AM
The view that healthcare is a privilege and must be governed by insurance companies who often play God, is incompatible with the Christian faith, which strangely is the religion of choice for people who favor the cut-throat healthcare system we have.


Uh huh. I seem to remember that passage: "Thou Shalt Not Have Private Healthcare Insurers Making Coverage Decisions." --Book of First Opinions.

cleller
11/3/2011, 03:02 PM
Don't know about all of Europe, but I do know a couple that returned to the US after spending a year in the Czech Republic. The husband was born in Prague, and immigrated to the US about 15 years ago. His parents both died in Prague over the last two years. (the reason for their year-long stay)

Their reports are that healthcare there is terrible. If you have money and can pay extra, it improves some, but is still a shadow of what the average person in the US would have access to. Trying to care for his parents has been a mess of drunk physicians, long waits, crowded hospitals, difficulty getting drugs. Apparently, doctors are poorly paid, also.
Luckily, the company he worked for supplied their own clinic for employee families, but his parents weren't eligible. Maybe other parts of Europe are much better, Czech was communist until the 80's. He has some great stories about his stint in the Czech army, trading the Russians socks for hand grenades.

The Czech/American husband thinks people are crazy if they look to Europe for guidance about anything. He does like the Swiss. Everybody likes the Swiss.

soonercruiser
11/3/2011, 10:37 PM
Don't know about all of Europe, but I do know a couple that returned to the US after spending a year in the Czech Republic. The husband was born in Prague, and immigrated to the US about 15 years ago. His parents both died in Prague over the last two years. (the reason for their year-long stay)

Their reports are that healthcare there is terrible. If you have money and can pay extra, it improves some, but is still a shadow of what the average person in the US would have access to. Trying to care for his parents has been a mess of drunk physicians, long waits, crowded hospitals, difficulty getting drugs. Apparently, doctors are poorly paid, also.
Luckily, the company he worked for supplied their own clinic for employee families, but his parents weren't eligible. Maybe other parts of Europe are much better, Czech was communist until the 80's. He has some great stories about his stint in the Czech army, trading the Russians socks for hand grenades.

The Czech/American husband thinks people are crazy if they look to Europe for guidance about anything. He does like the Swiss. Everybody likes the Swiss.

Almost daily, I get the same message from an AF retiree buddy, who was "liberal" and retired. Went to art school in France - stayed for 6 years, and now beats us up with the bad experiences daily. (His wife is French; met her in the military years). Both now happy to be in Choctow, USA. And his conservatism now makes ME blush!

SCOUT
11/3/2011, 11:32 PM
I am currently in negotiations with a candidate who lives in Calgary. We have generally agreed to the terms of his hire, but he has one sticking point left. He wants us to increase the amount he can expense each month for his health care. You see, the free health care in Canada is so great that he needs a private supplemental policy that runs $450 a month. He is going to win this one because we have 3 other employees in Canada and we reimburse them just under $500 per month each. While I get that Canada has differences from Europe in their system, they are not that significant.

Kind of expensive for free, don't you think?

AlboSooner
11/5/2011, 10:31 AM
Uh huh. I seem to remember that passage: "Thou Shalt Not Have Private Healthcare Insurers Making Coverage Decisions." --Book of First Opinions.

Let move a second from your fine sarcasm here, as I barely detected it, so let's jump in to what Jesus said:

Luke 10:25-3

n one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
26 “What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?”

27 He answered, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’[a]; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’[b]”

28 “You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.”

29 But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”

30 In reply Jesus said: “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he was attacked by robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. 31 A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. 32 So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33 But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. 34 He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him. 35 The next day he took out two denarii[c] and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.’

36 “Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?”

37 The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.”

Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.”
--------------------------------------------------

The neighbor of that religious Jew was the person he loathed the most: a Samaritan.

cleller
11/5/2011, 01:12 PM
Almost daily, I get the same message from an AF retiree buddy, who was "liberal" and retired. Went to art school in France - stayed for 6 years, and now beats us up with the bad experiences daily. (His wife is French; met her in the military years). Both now happy to be in Choctow, USA. And his conservatism now makes ME blush!

That's the way this Czech friend is. (he is now a US citizen) Very conservative in areas concerning government control, but liberal about abortion, alcohol, etc. Like you might expect. He gets very exasperated when people talk about adding more to healthcare, welfare, etc. Thinks we have the greatest country on earth, but are trying to throw it away.

soonercruiser
11/5/2011, 09:15 PM
That's the way this Czech friend is. (he is now a US citizen) Very conservative in areas concerning government control, but liberal about abortion, alcohol, etc. Like you might expect. He gets very exasperated when people talk about adding more to healthcare, welfare, etc. Thinks we have the greatest country on earth, but are trying to throw it away.

Sometimes, a fresh set of eyes can see something obvious, that others, starring at it for years cannot.