[geeks] Socialized medicine [was Re: nVidia 8800GT for Apple Mac Pro]

[hike]

On Fri, May 23, 2008 at 1:42 PM, Mike Meredith <very at zonky.org> wrote:

> On Fri, 23 May 2008 00:01:40 -0400, Patrick Giagnocavo wrote:
> > Worked really well for the Soviet Union and all its member states,
> > right?
> >
> > And we all know that Cubans have the VERY highest life expectancy of
> > all, right?
> >
> > No offense, but the reality is that socialism is a failure.  It took
> > the USSR 70 years to collapse.
>
> Given that you don't seem to be able to tell the difference between
> Lenin's brand of communism[0] and socialism, I think I'll take your
> predictions with a pinch of salt.
>
> Life expectancy isn't a great way of comparing health care,
> but as you brought it up anyway. Whatever else the Cubans are doing
> wrong, their health care system seems to be doing ok ... fewer infant
> deaths than the US and the life expectancy is pretty good. "males have
> a life expectancy at birth of 75 years and females 79 years. In
> comparison, the US life expectancy at birth is 75 and 80 years for
> males and female" - Wikipedia (with WHO figures).
>
> There are plenty of European countries that periodically have socialism
> governments and they all seem to be doing ok.
>
> 0: Lenin's 'soviet of soviets' was sprung on the communists as a bit of
> coup after the bolsheviks (a minority group) took over. Most
> non-stalinist/leninist communists and anarchists don't regard the USSR
> as a communist state; simply a dictatorship.
>
> --
> Mike Meredith (http://zonky.org/)
>  By the way, you DON'T want to see what a meat layer buffer overrun
>  looks like.... (mjr on fw-wiz)
> _______________________________________________
> GEEKS:  http://www.sunhelp.org/mailman/listinfo/geeks
>


The USA government no longer teach the difference between socialism and
communism.  You might want to give your definition.  It would be helpful.
My simple chart shows the differences that I know.

Socialism: nationalistic; government controls industry; peaceful/political
takeover
Communism: intenational; government ownership of industry; violent takeover

All Communists are Socialists but not all Socialists are Communists.
("World Socialism!" is the cry, bro.)

My socialist friend tries to persuade me; the Communists want to kill people
like me.

By the way, what EU country (other than Ireland) isn't squarely
socialistic.  The governments may have non-socialist names but the
government infrastructure is socialistic.