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Old 02-13-2010, 12:59 AM   #1
YomMamasHouse
 
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Join Date: Mar 2007
Location: Your Mom's House
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Socialized Healthcare

Well, we all know that universal healthcare is one of the biggest differences in opinion shared between modern conservatives and liberals. I want to start this thread to attempt to understand the mindset of those who do not see the same way as I do so I want to ask this question.

I agree that in principle there is something wrong if someone else fucks up and expects other people to bail them out (example - I eat McDonalds all my life and then say that the USA is screwed up because tax dollars don't pay for surgery on my clogged arteries).

My question is, even if someone is responsible for their own situation, would you still not want to help them out of it? I am not an expert on Christianity by any stretch, but the impression I get is that a large majority of peopel opposing the anti-universal healthcare proposal are republican christians so I want to bring this up. I ask this this because putting all other things aside, would the Jesus that history writes of really be of the opinion that if someone is in a self-inflicted crisis that we need not feel obliged (or at least compelled) to help them out?
I certainly become annoyed knowing that as a Canadian I am paying for surgeries and medications to cure people of ailments they could have easily avoided, but when I consider the alternative - which is, that if my tax dollars and those of other people had not gone towards their treatment that a portion of those people would have died.

I guess this boils down to being a compassion thing. In order to consider yourself a truly good person, how much do you have to care about other people. At what point is our obligation as caring, loving people, stopped? Given our current situation, would you choose more money for yourself and more people dying (irrespective of whether or not it is your fault), or to give up some of your income (or in my country's case keep it as it is) and know that your are helping some idiot somewhere, even if they don't appreciate it.

I guess I asked more than one question in that but regardless, I would like to see how people feel about these. Please don't respond with a Sarah Palin-esque vague response that sums up all the a-z's of your beliefs, I am only interested in the specific questions and your feelings about them at the moment.
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