March 15, 2008
Saturday

I respect Joel Galli's intelligent comparison of Medical systems in the USA and in Germany but Joe, have you been in or done business in Germany lately? Until very recently I was there every three months. Their tax rate is HUGE. The sales tax (VAT) is 19%. The price of gasoline is double our high price and most of that is tax. Income taxes are much higher and are more pervasive. I believe you pay a tax on each and every TV you have in your home for instance. The cost of manufacturing anything in Germany is so much higher than about anywhere else that even the highly intelligent and educated people of that much smaller nation, are suffering economically and their factory jobs are leaving for China and points east even faster than ours.

One principal culprit is high tax which makes it hard to be world competitive even if you can make great but expensive cars! I don't think Americans will put up with doubled or tripled taxes with one of the goals being better health care for people who don't get sufficiently educated or work hard enough to buy their own (I know, some are disabled but SSI cares for them and they qualify for early Medicare!). Let's see how people feel about the subject this coming November when we vote for President. As far as "get the money by surrendering in Iraq, Afghanistan, etc. ... Ask Germans what it is like to be a war defeated nation and I bet they can help you with that one too, Joe. Remember 9/11 Joe? Seen anything like it since? Remember the 1930s when we stayed out of all wars, even ones that were valid? Remember what happened? Neutrality does not work. I wish it did!

There is another social reality I have witnessed throughout Europe. In homogeneous societies as in most European nations, people are willing to do more, sacrifice more for their neighbors. It is like how we help out poorer members of our own churches first. In the UK in many smaller towns if a young girl becomes pregnant unmarried or if her husband absconds, the village chips in and buys her a home .... Buys it and pays for it and gives it to her. In our multicultural huge society it doesn't work like that. I think our system works better long term but they do have societal elements I wish we had too. They have some Turks and other north Africans in Germany now but nothing like the huge number of new immigrants and miscellaneous ethnic groups that we have, that make us stronger by the way. (The Germans used to have more ethnic groups but Adolph Hitler fixed that!) In most European nations, outside of capital cities for certain, citizens are of a single ethnic group, attend the same church and feel related. They are more generous with each other than we are. I have seen it with my own eyes.

Joe, I don't feel "Conservative" on many issues. I want us to spend more on education. I am against the death penalty. I am pro-choice. On economics and low taxes I am pragmatic. If free medical care worked I would love it for everyone. Remembering that everyone can get some kind of medical care if they are in real danger, especially children, I think we need to encourage productivity to keep us ahead of India and China and Malaysia or we will end up third world ourselves. I also strongly believe that too many government bureaucracies are inefficient. Too many politicians are controlled by special interests. I wish big government worked better too.

Mark Neckameyer
Irvine, California
(Except for Summer vacations in Alaska, by the way)

Received March 14, 2008 - Published March 15, 2008

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RE: Democrat Veep Remarks By Joel Galli

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