Mercutio said:
So what are businesses doing with that money if they aren't expanding?
How about giving CEOs ridiculous pay packages and golden parachutes? This is what I think is mainly wrong with businesses in this country-the huge gap between the lowest paid worker and the CEO. If jobs are being moved overseas, and costs cut in other ways, then the money saved should not go to overpay CEOs. Rather, the price of the product should be lowered. I'm all for fair compensation, but not when you have the ones actually doing the grunt work making $10 an hour while the CEO gets $10 million plus a percentage of the profits. This is all the more obscene as a pay package tied in with profit encourages laying people off and overworking the remaining work force(i.e. give them a stupid title to make them part of "management" and you no longer need to pay them OT). Today's CEOs are for the most part such an unimaginative bunch it makes me puke. You increase profits by increasing your business with innovative new products, not by laying people off.
Why would I want to have $200 extra dollars in my pocket, monthly, and affordable, useful medical care from say a national health coverage policy?
While you might benefit(and you undoubtably deserve to in light of all the taxes you've paid), the problem with national health coverage(or any type of medical entitlement for that matter, such as Medicare or Medicaid) is that the healthy end up paying for the sick. You'll get people like me who haven't been to a doctor in 20 years being forced to pay yet another tax for something that will probably never pay them even 10% back in benefits. Even worse, government insurance and in fact any system where somebody else pays the bulk(such as private insurance) discourages many people from taking any responsibility for their health. Right now preventable diseases like diabetes, heart disease, strokes, joint problems, etc. are increasing in record numbers because people get fat, don't excercise, and then run to the doctor when things stop working crying "fix me, fix me, I don't want to die!" Of course, most of them would never have gotten to that state if they had to pay out of pocket for all the fancy drugs keeping them alive(in fact, many could get off those drugs entirely by losing weight and exercising). But since they don't pay much, if anything, they simply don't care to do anything for their health.
Fact is medical entitlements are rising faster than inflation, and if not reigned in sooner or later will result in bankruptcy at all levels of government. Basically then, no prescription drug coverage, no national health care, and let's phase out Medicare, private insurance, and especially Medicaid entirely. Go back to a user pays system, get the lawyers out of medicine(frivolous malpractice suits are a big force behind rising medical costs), and maybe the price of medical care will drop to a reasonable amount again that people can pay out of pocket. Thanks to the factors driving up the cost of medicine, I couldn't afford a thorough yearly checkup even if I wanted to. I'd rather avoid doctors entirely if possible anyway as they'll usually want to prescribe something, even for a healthy person.
Another grip I have with insurance is that it if I work for a company that offers it as part of the employment package, to me it is almost worthless. About the only thing I would use are the dental benefits, and those are usually the worst part of an insurance package. I'd rather the company just added the $5000 or so the insurance costs them to my pay(and do the same with the matching Social Security, unemployment insurance, disability insurance, etc.). I can put it to better use sticking it in a mutual fund and drawing upon that when any emergencies pop up. I don't care if others won't necessarily do the same. I shouldn't have part of my compensation put into an almost useless benefit package because doing so benefits the incompetent majority. Yet another example of society catering to the lowest common denominator if you ask me.
