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ManusJustus on 19 June 2009
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Kasz216 said:
ManusJustus said:
HappySqurriel said:

The problem with "Helping" the poor in the way the government tends to do it is that it tends to translate into the poor being worse off in the long run ...

A union, who's unfunded liabilities and insane wages lead to the destruction of the company they work for, can benefit.

There definately forms of 'helping' that do worse in the long term.  However, healthcare and education are not one of those.  Healthy people are more productive workers, which benefits both the individual and the overall economy.  The same argument goes for education.

In regards to the bottom quote, its my opinion that both union workers and CEOs make more money than they are worth.

Oh... something to consider.

The US has more productive workers then anywhere in Europe on a per hour basis.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/09/03/business/main3228735.shtml

So... perhaps your wrong on this.

Perhaps socialized healthcare and saftey nets cause people to not work as hard?

America is doing something right, but there are so many variables that go into that statistic that you cant single out something like socialized healthcare.  Or even if healthcare has the same relationship with the statistic as you would think.  Are sick people are healthy enough to work worse than sick people who are unable to work and aren't counted in the statistic?  I know America has a program that trains and helps senior citizens find office work, but I would imagine the statistic would be better off if those people stayed unemployed.

Fom the article: "Seven years ago, French workers produced over a dollar more on average than their American counterparts. The country led the U.S. in hourly productivity from 1994 to 2003."

I have a hard time imagining what America or France recently changed that would account for that, which leads me to think this is one of those difficult to explain social qualities and not a simple to understand principle.