DR X said:
To many people wasting thier time complaining about the government and not doing anything. By the way, the government is not the economy or the health care system. If you want to be a socialist country then it could be but until then that's free enterprise.
I agree with the statement that the complainers should start taking action, however, our government has a massive amount of control over our economy through devices like taxes, tariffs, government spending, interest rates, etc. Is it really a big surprise that the price of oil is over $50 a barrell when the president is so tight with the oil industry. Who do you think is profiting from this? Texas oil companies and countries like Saudi Arabia - which is using its profits to fund a small nuclear weapons research program. IMO, the government has too much control over health care as well, with medicare and medicaid sucking money from workers pockets and at the same time not fully funding seniors health care. I'm not gonna tell stories of seniors eating dog food, but my grandma just got out of the hospital, she is 92 BTW, and she has to pay a pretty hefty deductible for her time in the hospital plus her time in a separate rehab facility. This is with the government plan and a private plan. I would pay less on my personal plan. Seems senseless for the cost.
This may not be a socialist country, but I wouldn't say it's a free market either. The government may not regulate prices, except on items like eggs, milk, cigarettes, housing (I'll stop now), but big brother is definitely in charge. Look at it this way, China now has a ton of property ownership, including corporate and business ownership, so are they are free enterprise society?