Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by comex 5404 days ago
Why the contempt? For each of these issues, a decent fraction of the population will make a reasonable argument for change, and a similarly sized fraction will make a reasonable argument against change, or at least against the type of change proposed by the other side (dissatisfaction itself is universal enough).

In the case of socialized health care, especially, a majority of the population is violently against it, and while I disagree with most of the arguments, they are neither unreasonable nor apathetic.
1 comments
beagle3 5403 days ago
> a decent fraction of the population will make a reasonable argument for change

That's how it works in theory. In practice, there is one party (Lobbyists) with two representations, Democrats and Republicans. This guarantees that everyone keeps arguing about supposed merits (mostly about things like gay marriage and legal abortions, which make little difference overall, but occasionally also about things that do matter like health care), but little gets done on any argued front, while in the meantime wars and patriot acts happen.

I'm sure reasonable arguments can be made for both sides, e.g. on the health care debate. But I've listened and looked for them, and never heard them (on either side). I'm familiar with reasonable arguments on the "for" side for socialized health care. I haven't managed to find a reasonable argument for the "against" side. (By reasonable, I mean based on facts and comparison to other countries who have implemented similar programs ..... e.g. the entire western world except the US).

> a majority of the population is violently against it, and while I disagree with most of the arguments, they are neither unreasonable nor apathetic.

I remember reading about >50% support FOR one-payer system (the way Canada and the UK run theirs), before the rulers (eh, sorry, "leaders") decided it's not even on the table.

I would really like to hear some of these reasonable arguments against.

The contempt is from actually living in the US, talking to people daily who believe that they live in a democracy, or that their government is working to benefit them in any way.

link