I agree Latin sucks. I only think it would be the best choice because it would avoid issues like that. Germans want German, then the French say no it has to be French and then the Swedes want Swedish and so on...

1.) I'm not sure. I'll ask him about that.
2.) Primarily because it can be so much more expensive, and you can die if you don't get it. You won't die if you don't get a videogame (although it might feel terrible not being able to play Smash Bros 4, but you'll survive. lol). I saw some families tell their stories on Oprah one time.
One family lost their daughter because when the paramedics arrived at the scene, (she had fainted, but called 911 before that), they saw that her insurance didn't have any insurance or something like that. I forget, but they simply left her there and drove back. She died at the scene.
Another family lost their son because their insurance "only" covered 20 000 of the neccesary 50 000 for his operation. They managed to get a bit more, but not enough. He passed away from his illness as they didn't give him the surgery he needed.
Another family sold their house just to afford their bills.

I find this rediculous because of how much it costs, and because getting sick is something that's unavoidable in many cases at some point in everyones lives. Also because in pretty much every other first world country in the world, healthcare is free. (So is school btw). The upside to America's healthcare system is that you bypass the waiting lines if you have money. But if your insurance doesn't cover some things or if you don't have money, you're screwed.

That's a curious thing to say. I remember my 11th grade history teacher told us about how China would become a superpower several years later, and told us students to begin to learn Mandarin.

Of course, it's on the tax payers. Though we all pay for different things in our taxes. American tax payers had to fund two of George W Bushe's wars for example, since he refused to pay for it. Whether certain wars are inevitable or not can be debated, but it didn't have to be payed for completely by tax payers, and in either case, I feel that free education and healthcare are very good investements. As well as a guaranteed personal pension.

As for the cost of it all, I imagine it's generally significantly cheaper to the point where the term free is not far from the truth.
Going to a private college is on an average $28,500 per year in America. That's $114,000 for 4 years. And that's just on average. At a top end University like Cornell you pay around $57,125 per year. That's $228,500 for 4 years. Based on how much of my income tax goes to education (24% of it), it would take me 151 years at my currrent job before they've taken that much money from me to fund education. And that's if we count one child. What if I have two? Or three? That would be 302/435 years. In comparison, I would almost call what we pay free.
I've heard of families in the US that save up money all their adult lives just to send their kids to college. Some times they can only afford to send some of them to a decent college. Some times none. That's sad. Over here, the schools actually pay us us to go to school. It's not much, like $400 a month, but it's something, and it helps prevent students from being forced to rely on student loans, and it sure beats having to save up a fortune to afford tuitions.
No society is perfect though. But things like healthcare is not something people should be without, in any circumstances.

Oh and as for my friend, I asked him about the dog. He said "cause it was a friend of mines who came from a poor family and I just couldn't bring myself to ask them. I have about another year till it clears of my record for my credit score so even though it may or may not have been the right decision it's behind me now."

Not sure what that credit score he mentioned is, but it kinda sounds like he would have had to pay more than $3000 without it.