Originally Posted By: bkbenjy
Originally Posted By: D Hill
Originally Posted By: antonmnster
Hmmmmm, let's see...
would I rather spend a few hundred extra bucks on my motor oil, or continue to spend about $10,000 per year on health insurance plus another couple thousand in co-pays and deductibles to feed a huge corporate insurance bureaucracy?
And I can always make my own booze...
HAHAHA! Also interesting is how much higher the entire region scores on the
Happy Planet Index than we do. I'd definitely pay more for oil if it means not having millions of my fellow citizens choosing between eating or keeping their homes for a medical treatment any day. Alas, that's JMHO.
That's very nice of you. It sounds to me like you're a charitable person. I also like to donate sometimes. But the way I see it is this is a forced donation. I would like to choose who and when I donate to. When purchasing oil people shouldn't have to pay a mandatory donation charge in the the price tag.
I agree the oil prices here are ridiculous and I imagine lots of Norwegians probably find ways to get oils in other countries such as Germany.
But I met a group of Norwegians at a local wedding a while back. IIRC, a couple of the guys were ex-soldiers who had served and befriended a local Marine reservist friend of my girlfriend at the time (Buffalo has or had a USMC Reserve infantry unit that was specially trained in arctic warfare at Ft. Drum, and who often deployed to Norway during NATO exercises).
They were all extremely well educated and spoke English better than a good segment of the American population thanks to an excellent education system. Their cities are clean, well ordered and kept, they have a very low crime rate, and probably have the fraction of the societal problems we have. Granted, probably not a fair direct comparison since they have a culturally homogeneous population dominated by its middle classes. But my point is that one gets something for that "donation," so it isn't a "donation" at all.
Secondly, IIRC, Norway isn't really socialist, but a mixed economy like the U.S. is. Though with far greater gov't intervention in the economy. But that's still not really socialism as practiced in Sweden or something. And I'm sure a lot of Europeans would probably criticize our political system of longer election cycles that is far more incumbent on special interest money--or legalized special interest bribery--if we're being honest..
. 
