[scottLobster]

Ideally, but we don't live in an ideal world. Stuff costs money, and the best stuff costs more money. That holds true no matter what percentage the taxpayers might cover. Baseline coverage for anything is great until you're hit by something that's not covered. Maybe your college financial aid doesn't cover that extra year that you want to take, or your condition requires experimental surgery that basic insurance won't cover, or your homeowners' insurance doesn't cover fires caused by Galaxy Note 7s because of some bullshit fine print. :) Or you didn't understand your mortgage terms and get screwed out of your house entirely unless you've got some massive financial cushion.

On the public side, I look at our (US) government's spending habits and they're clearly unsustainable long term. I know national debt isn't like personal debt, but at some point there has to be a reckoning, or more likely a series of smaller but no less meaningful reckonings. Combined with advances in technology threatening to take away even white collar jobs (although as an engineer mine's probably safe), one way or another we're in for some very turbulent times. I want my family insulated from that. I want to be the rich guy who gets hit by the great depression... and is moderately less rich. :)

I'm already lucky, if I wanted to I could take my foot off the gas at my current job and probably not have to worry about 80% of life's financial problems, but I know eventually one of the 20% is going to come along and wreck my shit. So I work to close that gap.

In short: Figuratively speaking I'm not satisfied with my own emergency shelter, I want my own protective carrier battlegroup. No matter where I live or what I do, that kind of protection takes money.

[piva00]

So basically you are overworking yourself in the richest country of the world because the society you live in is structured in such a way that every single person is responsible for their own safety regarding emergencies that are completely unpredictable and could be alleviated with a more collectivist worldview where everyone could contribute a bit more to help those in need.

I don't mind my taxes paying for my friend who's on his 4th month of sick leave because of a sudden and deep depression, it's a very small cost for me so society in general can be healthier.